How do you like your blue-eyed boy Mister Death

Scarcely a day after the San Bernardino massacre, many questions remain unanswered. Thus far,  among the 14 dead and 21 injured were clients with developmental disabilities -- helplessly handicapped -- and their caregivers. What else do we know?

According to reports, there was a heated exchange at the social services center. A man stormed angrily from a meeting room. He returned later with an accomplice. Together, they aimed for maximum body count in the shortest possible time.

The shooters were a man and wife armed with assault rifles, handguns, tactical gear, and high capacity ammunition magazines. Hardly a spontaneous act, these superficial details suggest advance planning and preparation. 

Was the massacre a work-related revenge killing, an act of terrorism, or a hybrid of motives and methods as yet unknown?

Yesterday, our news media reported unsubstantiated rumors with headlined hearsay and mindless blather. Tomorrow, no doubt, reactionary voices will jump to conclusions with reflexive blame, opportunistic pandering, and ritual scapegoating.

No doubt, the NRA will place “good guys with a gun” on a pedestal alongside Buffalo Bill’s Defunct -- American idols of anachronism, snake oil, and sleaze.  Once again, the NRA will blame victims for failing to defend themselves. Rehearsed rhetoric from recycled scripts will condemn victims to silence -- shades of Aurora, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Roseburg, Tucson, and Virginia Tech.

All of which makes me madder than hell. No longer will I accept carnage as currency in exchange for unfettered gun rights. No longer should we tolerate errors of mystification that lead to an overwhelming conclusion: Nothing can be done.

Those who perpetuate the madness -- the NRA, the gun lobby, 'open carry' extremists, and politicians of every stripe on the NRA payroll -- have blood on their hands.  From this day forward, let us treat them as enablers, collaborators, and co-conspirators.  Never again should we accept partisan deadlock and Congressional gridlock as an excuse for protecting this American death cult.

CNN: WHERE JOURNALISM RHYMES WITH NARCISSISM (AND OTHER MINDLESS DISTRACTIONS)

I refer to this commentary by Jake Tapper, billed as CNN’s “Chief Washington Correspondent” …

“I say this as an American -- not as a journalist, not as a representative of CNN -- but as an American: I was ashamed … [skip] … I find it hard to believe that collectively President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Attorney General Eric Holder -- who was actually in France that day for a conference on counterterrorism -- just had no time in their schedules on Sunday.”

Here is another manufactured controversy - sensationalized and repeated ad nauseam - that neither informs nor uplifts the public at a time when positive back-stories are needed most.  Who gives a damn what Jake Tapper thinks … as an American (he does not speak for me), as a journalist (petty sniping is not journalism), or as a representative of CNN (which fails to rise above the Faux News caricature).

The headline of President Obama as a no-show is the one that sticks in the mind.  Yet, imbedded within his commentary is Jake Tapper’s half-assed stab at appearing 'fair and balanced' ...

“I find it hard to believe that Speaker of the House John Boehner and new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had more worthy pursuits on Sunday than standing side-by-side with our French brothers and sisters … [skip] … I'm frankly floored that not one of the people who is contemplating running for president in 2016 has yet to even tweet on the subject … [skip] … Chris Christie, Scott Walker and Paul Ryan attended the Green Bay-Dallas football game Sunday … [skip] … And Jeb? Mitt? Crickets.”

Why headline the Commander-in-Chief as Deadbeat-in-Chief when our entire political establishment appears vapidly unexceptional at street theater.  Perhaps the President is busy at the moment - along with the rest of the administration.  The story that should have made headlines is this one:  MUSLIM MAN HAILED FOR LIFE-SAVING COURAGE DURING PARIS SIEGE:

“In the days after the bloody end of twin French hostage crises Friday, stories of life-saving courage are beginning to filter out. One of the most striking is the story of Lassana Bathily, a young immigrant from Mali who literally provided police with the key to ending the hostage crisis at the supermarket.

Bathily was in the store's underground stockroom when gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst in upstairs, according to accounts given to French media and to a friend of Bathily's who spoke to The Associated Press. Bathily turned off the stockroom's freezer and hid a group of frightened shoppers inside before sneaking out through a fire escape to speak to police. Initially confused for the attacker, he was forced to the ground and handcuffed.

Once police realized their mistake, he provided them with the key they needed to open the supermarket's metal blinds and mount their assault.”

Here is the story of a Muslim immigrant who put aside ethnocentric tribalism to save lives - Jewish lives.  More than ever, we need this story to counter bigotry, to help prevent a backlash against Muslim communities, and to stop the endless cycles of recrimination and revenge.  Now is not the time for self-serving narratives steeped in nationalism, exceptionalism and narcissism.  We need stories about heroes and positive role models such as Lassana Bathily - and less Jake Tapper claptrap.

Vive la France!

Well, they're dead and I'm glad, but I have two regrets. One of course is that some Jewish hostages have been killed and the other that the murderers of God didn't have to endure an endlessly agonizing and humiliating death.  Jews and cartoonists. Just the sort of people Islamic leaders like to vilify and Islamic devotees like to kill.  God you see is very insecure and can't abide anyone doubting the words of the prophets as set down and interpreted by generations of Mullahs and Ayatollahs.  He also doesn't like Jews, or at least that's what his myriad mouthpieces say.

He has much in common with the American radical right who must feel frustrated that not everyone agrees just how dangerous those Jews are, how hated of God and how they control everything and oppose family values. Not that either of these tribes would admit their commonality, but both will be relieved that a few more of these evil Christ killers, stock market riggers, media propagandists and insulters of Allah are dead on a grocery store floor.

In Saudi Arabia, our moderate Islamic friends and members of the UN Human Rights Council, so intimate with our former president:  In Saudi Arabia where terrorists are doubtlessly protested against when I'm not looking, a blogger got a savage beating for insulting Islam. The Website Free Saudi Liberals, sounds just like the sort of place those locals with "I Am Not A Liberal"  and "Liberalism is a mental disease" bumper stickers would find repugnant too, if only they could read at an adequate level to peruse them.

50 lashes, in case you don't know, is a severe punishment, effectively removing your skin.  Not severe enough for our "moderate Muslim" friends pandered to by the US though, so he's going to get another one every week for 20 weeks.  That's a thousand! I doubt he will survive, but hey!  God will not be insulted.

But wait, there's more!  He gets to pay over a quarter million dollars in fines too, but they'd better get it up front.  As I said, I doubt he will survive.  Will there be a million protesters in the streets of Riad?  Of course not. Will the Saudi's rise up in arms and overthrow a murderous tyranny?  Will we rage against them at the UN? Am I asking rhetorical questions?  At best there will be some faint damnation somewhere and Americans will be too busy decrying Obama's tyranny to give a damn what goes on in the lives of a billion, two hundred million suffering human beings.  It's not good to criticize religion and next thing you know someone will be insulting Jesus  or religion in general and we can't allow that.  Religion doesn't kill people -- people kill people and since we're all people, who's to blame but us?

As liberals, we have to be tolerant of course and we always have to be conscious of how the guilt is really ours and no one else is really to blame but the actual perpetrators and even then, we have to remember they have issues and be sympathetic.  We can't assign any part in it to the preachers, the prelates, the prophets and all the people who assist, facilitate, coach, train, feed and comfort the murders of children. We can't blame those who look the other way, saying nothing, who hide fugitives, who make heroes of  suicide bombers and plane hijackers and gang rapists -- who slice up little girls and hang homosexuals and murder novelists and cartoonists in the name of God.

Sure, technically they could do something, but those silk robes stain so easily and why should we bother when after all the Christians sacked Jerusalem in 1099 and partitioned the Ottoman Empire a hundred years ago. It's our own fault and it's natural to take it our on some grocery shopper in Paris.

Guilt and innocence -- do those words mean anything?  What after all is truth but what we're told to believe?  What is truth if it erodes our piety? Can there be guilt when someone has some grievance against someone else or against society or against infidels or Liberals or Jews?  How can we even accuse when it would make us a bigot, a racist, a heretic?

It's over so lets get back to the game or to the missing airplane or to making fun of Republicans or Democrats according to our habits.

Freedom of the press

In a column published in USA Today, Jonathan Turley is feeling a little cranky about the Justice Department investigating reporters; he even calls, in the headline, for the firing of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Turley is a very smart, highly educated man. This doesn't stop him from being wrong. Not completely wrong, I'll admit; but he is arguably incorrect in the larger sense here.

Turley's point, at its center, is that Holder approved the search of email and phone records for Fox "News" reporter James Rosen and (Turley mentions in passing) the Associated Press. Turley holds to the idea that a "free press," as delineated in the Constitution, is vital.

And he does make a point. It was a free press that showed Nixon as the abusive, power-hungry paranoid that he was. It is a free press that turns up scandals and crimes that are otherwise hidden from sight.

But what Turley is missing is that, just like free speech, a free press has limits. Or, to be more accurate, it has consequences: Turley and the AP both have the right to report on whatever they find, but they both have to take responsibility for any repercussions that might occur due to their reporting.

See, with Fox, the Justice Department got a search warrant from a federal judge, which gave them the opportunity to thumb through Rosen's phone records and email. And all because Rosen had reported on missile tests in North Korea; these tests were conducted as a response to the UN Security Council's condemnation of North Korea's bat-shit insane leader's nuclear aspirations. And Rosen learned all this from leaks of classified information which came from Stephen Kim, who has since been fired from the State Department.

North Korea is a notoriously paranoid and insular country, and the classified leaks allowed the North Koreans to cut off one of our few sources of intelligence from inside their borders.

The Associated Press story is a little more complicated, mostly because of the overblown hyperbole used by the AP in defense of their people. The AP published a story about a foiled bomb plot, and their story revealed the identity of a Saudi spy who'd been inserted into notoriously terrorist-friendly Yemen.

The Justice Department once again got a search warrant, as they should, and they used it to subpoena phone records from an editor and six reporters (including the Washington bureau chief, Sally Buzbee). Those seven people, though, used phones out in the common area of the AP news room which were used by every reporter who passed through the bureau; this allowed AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll to claim that the news service is "shocked" by what happened, and that the Justice Department cast a "very broad net" which pulled in AP operations "that have, as far as I know, no particular connection to the story that they seem to be investigating."

Sorry, lady, that's the way investigation works. To pull out the gold nuggets, sometimes you have to pan through a lot of pebbles. You'd probably know this if the AP did any actual investigation these days, instead of just stenography of other people's talking points.

Thanks to these two stories, we've lost access to one of the few available sources of information on the nuclear aspirations of a raving madman, and to a spy embedded in a terrorist cell.

And that's the real scandal.

God's bloody cleaver

"The only reasons we killed this man ... is because Muslims are dying daily,"

said the man, holding a bloody cleaver and standing over the body of a British soldier hacked to pieces.  Muslims are dying.  Actually everyone is, even Atheists, but being part of the Middle Eastern religious tradition, followers of one prophet or another see themselves as different; as special to the point where they'll murder their own to prevent the "dishonor" of disobedience and they'll sure as hell kill you for not recognizing your goddamn specialness, you infidel!

There's something we have to realize: that Christian, Jew or Muslim, there is a thread running through our history and our 'scripture' that execrates deviation, heresy and all forms of non-conformity and puts all wisdom in the past, but right now, the people who are cutting off hands and heads and genitalia identify themselves as Muslim, whether or not other Muslims tell you that this isn't what their religion is about.  Perhaps they're right and perhaps the Inquisition was an aberration too, but this is now and for the most part the bombers, the hijackers, the kidnappers, the decapitators are talking about the God revealed by Mohammad  -- a God like all Gods who silently watches and does nothing unless we do it in his name.  Every Faith is a potential weapon.  Every one.

So the World Trade towers were blown to hell because we were "bothering" Muslims.  Perhaps we were, but then it doesn't take much, does it?  It doesn't take much when just walking on their "holy" sand without believing their holy horseshit is enough to get you killed and your family too.

So the Boston bomber wrote that this was all because we infidels were killing them  -- Muslims were dying, never mind why and never matter that for the most part it's because they've been killing us. We did far, far worse to the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan, yet they've pretty much eschewed violent revenge and it's a better world for it.  Religion doesn't compromise, doesn't allow experience to teach anything unless the experience appears in a myth from long ago, religion never forgets or forgives and so the quest for disgusting levels of retribution becomes part of the faith itself and it never ends.
 

 "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth," said the meat cleaver of God. "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone."

Prime Minister James Cameron seems concerned that the reaction will include reprisals against innocent Muslims and stressed that these crazed killers were betraying Islam, but as I said, any religion is capable of producing such madmen and not very good at suppressing extremists and particularly when martyrdom is a cornerstone of the faith, particularly when God sits idly by as though he were impotent and the faithful see the need to get their hands bloody on his behalf, lest people doubt his "almighty" power.

 Is there really any way to leave them alone?  Will they ignore us if we ignore them?  Can they afford not to sell themselves as victims?  I think not.  I think that to risk having the faithful realizing that the poverty and ignorance in Islamic countries has much to do with Islam itself is unacceptable.  They have to blame it on the west.  When I hear that they'll never stop fighting, I believe it and I believe Cameron when he says the British will never give in either.  There simply isn't any way to do that, because when religion is involved, it's always a battle till the death.

The rocky nook with hilltops three/Looked eastward from the farms

So, what is our takeaway from the Boston bombing? Three people were killed, and over 170 people were injured. What should we do about it?

Well, Senator Lindsey Graham (belle of the ball and well-known Scarlett O'Hara impersonator) believes we should take away the rights of American citizens, skip having a trial entirely, and pull out the whips and cattle-prods.


Wonkette published a list of people who they suggested should eat a bag of dicks on the subject. But I'm pretty sure Lindsey has dreams like that, and I'm not in the business of making him happy.

Over on the openly-insane side of the argument, we have Alex Jones of the conspiracy-theory site infowars.com saying that the Obama administration staged the whole thing in order to establish martial law and take away our rights. (On the other hand, a blogger at Forward Progressives makes an equally persuasive argument that Alex Jones’ desire for farm animals fuels his distrust for the government.)

Jones wasn't the only conspiracy theorist to go completely bugnuts over this whole thing. There was just too much misinformation out there for their tiny little brains to process. For one thing, the media certainly failed to do anything except look like incompetent idiots (here's a visual representation of who said what and when, if you're curious.) The most egregious lies, of course, came from publications owned by Rupert Murdoch: the New York Post, Wall Street Journal and Fox "News" Channel.

Easily the worst of those three was the tabloid NY Post, who decided to devote their front page to two bystanders who the Post implied were the bombers. Because, hey, they had dark skin, right?

One of them, a high-school track star, turned himself in to the police because he didn't want to get attacked by people who still believe that the NY Post covers the news.


Social media wasn't much help - Twitter and police scanners allowed the innocent people to end up smeared as "suspects," or sometimes, to create people who didn't exist.

Meanwhile, at 2:14am Eastern, an official on the police scanner said, "Last name: Mulugeta, M-U-L-U-G-E-T-A, M as in Mike, Mulugeta." And thus was born the newest suspect in the case: Mike Mulugeta. It doesn't appear that Mulugeta, whoever he or she is, has a first name of Mike. And yet that name, "Mike Mulugeta," was about to become notorious.

One of the things that spurred many a paranoid rant, of course, was the fact that a Saudi man was (or wasn't) taken into custody (or to a hospital, or escaped) after being seen planting a bomb (or running from the scene, or acting suspticiously), and then was released (or disappeared, or was taken up by the alien mothership).

Yes, "facts" became remarkably fluid over the course of last week.

What basically happened was a simple combination of paranoia and racism.

A twenty-year-old man who had been watching the Boston Marathon had his body torn into by the force of a bomb. He wasn't alone; a hundred and seventy-six people were injured and three were killed. But he was the only one who, while in the hospital being treated for his wounds, had his apartment searched in "a startling show of force," as his fellow-tenants described it to the Boston Herald, with a "phalanx" of officers and agents and two K9 units...

Why the search, the interrogation, the dogs, the bomb squad, and the injured man's name tweeted out, attached to the word "suspect"? After the bombs went off, people were running in every direction—so was the young man. Many, like him, were wounded; many of them were saved by the unflinching kindness of strangers, who carried them or stopped the bleeding with their own hands and improvised tourniquets....

In the midst of that, according to a CBS News report, a bystander saw the young man running, badly hurt, rushed to him, and then “tackled him,” bringing him down. People thought he looked suspicious.

What made them suspect him? He was running — so was everyone. The police reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second bomb — as there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone was dead — a question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia, which is around where the logic stops.

He was cleared by the authorities. But not by social media. And he has now become another puzzle piece for the paranoid to obsess about.

And our right-wing media continues to fan the fear. We have columnists ranting in national outlets that this attack (which, as I mentioned above, killed 3 people and injured 170) was literally worse than 9/11, or the Oklahoma City bombing, or any attack ever, all the way back to the Great Flood!

Huh. If you think about it, the Biblical Flood was just another mass killing. What does that make God?... It is the Old Testament, so it could be argued that He was Middle Eastern...

Sorry. Seem to have gone off on a tangent, there...

So, what should we take away from this experience? Well, while there were more injured, there were less people killed than there were at Sandy Hook. We should probably react to this tragedy just the same way we did to that one. Just as much should get done because of this, as will get done because of that.

And maybe, just maybe, the media can get its head out of its ass, and go back to reporting facts, instead of rushing to get something (anything!) out there to the public, and to be first!

Somehow, I doubt that any of this will be the case. But we can hope.

Silent Running

The weeping and wailing industry is almost as quick to react to certain events as the paramedics are, and this morning's paper has a local runner's group holding a silent run in the attempt to feel relevant or perhaps to express ire that anyone would interfere with one of America's sacred sports.  Yes, I'm sounding cynical here, but it's not because I'm callous with regard to the loss of life and all the injuries, it's just that in recent decades, the public reaction to high profile death has been so orchestrated and so formulaic that it cheapens the moment and distracts us from seeing such things in context. I'm not interested in crying, I don't subscribe to self-pity and I don't need closure or healing. I'm interested in being able to keep the kind of things that have plagued us all at least since Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament from happening, as much as is possible in a free country.

Judging from other events, we'll soon be seeing piles of Teddy Bears on Boston streets and other silent runnings slowly turning our anger and willingness to learn from this event into a  declining series of maudlin and sentimental exhibitions of self-pity and the lachrymose quest for 'healing.'  One might forget just how rare such occurrences are in our country.  One will forget what must be done to keep things that way.  Our record, at least since the Oklahoma City bombing and the events of 2001, to thwart bombing attempts has been pretty good and  the mawkish  mourning and stuffed animal social club hasn't played much of a part.

According to a CNN.com editorial, only one successful bombing in America has been carried out since 9/11/01 -- by a White Supremacist. In the decade before that there were many, not the least of which were the killing of 168 in Oklahoma City, the 1998 Olympic bombing in Atlanta and the 1993 World Trade garage bomb which killed 6.  I don't include the horror of the 'Branch Davidian' holocaust, where David Koresh and his devout men of valor as he called them burned his followers to death.

What can we learn from the recent past?  That such events are pretty rare in America and getting more so as compared with Europe -- that our domestic politics of anger and violence is costly, for another. 380 people have been indicted on terrorism-related charges in the United States between September 11, 2001 and December 31 2012 and of those 207 have been so-called 'jihadists' or Muslim extremists, but non-Muslim perpetrators, 80% of whom have been American "conservatives"  have killed 29 versus 17 by Muslims.  All this and more from a Syracuse University study.  

But we've obviously gotten better.  We're catching nearly all the bombers and poisoners before they can act.  We'll never achieve perfect safety, not even if we achieve a perfect police state, but we'll come closer if we pay more attention to our own potential terrorists all across the political and religious  spectrum and spend less time wallowing in stylized and choreographed sorrow.

Is it time to notice just how much of our grossly exaggerated fear of  mad bombers should be directed  toward the American Right?    How much is fueled by Rush and Fox and Coulter and Bachmann and yes, the holy hellfire Christian Conservatives?

What is it about Islamic fundamentalists?

Anybody who knows me (statistically, damned few of you) is aware that I am not a faithful churchgoer. And some of you probably worked that out from my nom de blog.

However, for all that unbelievers in America face discrimination, idiocy and occasional threats, we have it better than people in some parts of the world.

I tend to reserve most of my bile for Christianity, mostly because it's the religion that keeps trying to take over America. Which happens to be where I live. I don't happen to appreciate people trying to shove their beliefs down my throat - I'm not going to compare it to rape, but there are philosophical similarities. Much in the way that a house fire would be similar to a nuclear holocaust, but still...

In fact, due to the excessive and overwrought hatred of Muslims that is typically found among members of the Right Wing, I've tended to shy away from pointing out the less-brilliant aspects of Islamic beliefs. But let me just say this.

Muslim societies, on the whole, are less advanced than those of us in what they call the "West." Their educational levels frequently aren't even on a par with Mississippi, they are roughly as set in their ways as the Catholic church, and they share many beliefs with the Westboro Baptist Chuch. And they have an unpleasant tendancy toward violence similar to members of the NRA.

Bangladesh, for example, is nominally a secular democracy, but they seem to have forgotten what "secular" actually means. When Bangladesh gained independance from Pakistan in 1971, they set up a constitution that included "Four State Principles" - Secularism, Democracy, Nationalism and Socialism (factors which were upheld in Bangladeshi court in 2010).

However, with a population that is almost 90% Muslim (89.4% in 2010), they seem to be adding two more principles: Bigotry and Intolerance.

And Violence. So maybe three principles. (I could add "Murder," but it would rapidly grow into a Monty Python sketch about the Muslim Inquisition.)

See, there's an atheist blogger in Bangladesh named Asif Mohiuddin. In January, he was attacked in an apparent murder attempt, by three men who tried (but failed) to stab him in the throat. A month later, on 15 February, another atheist blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was hacked to death in a machete attack in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.

For the crime of making himself a target, the surviving blogger, Asif, was arrested last Wednesday, and his blog on www.somewhereinblog.net ordered shut down by the government. He was the fourth blogger in two days to be arrested for "defaming Islam.".

The government is cracking down on athiests because Muslims are rioting. Which is, of course, the perfect response: you should always give in to violent threats. On 13 March, the Prime Minister's office formed a committee tasked with identifying "blasphemous" bloggers.

Earlier in the week, four online writers were arrested on charges of hurting Islamic religious sentiments in a country where 90 percent of people are Muslims.

Following recent protests over the war crimes tribunal, the government has blocked a dozen websites and blogs to stem the unrest. It has also set up a panel, which includes intelligence chiefs, to monitor blasphemy on social media.

Under the country’s cyber laws, a blogger or Internet writer can face up to ten years in jail for defaming a religion.

What is it about radical Islam that causes them to attack and kill anyone they disagree with? If girls try to go to school, they get shot. Cartoonists who draw pictures of Mohammed are attacked with axes. Being "too Western" or committing "sexual impropriety" will get a woman murdered by her family.

Now, among Christians, the percentage of fundamentalists varies: in the Bible Belt (sociographically, the "East South Central Region" - Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama), it stands at about 58%, while in New England, it climbed slightly during the Bush era to 13%. If we assume that the same percentages hold for the Islamic peoples, that's still a buttload of fundamentalists. And in any religion, it's the fundamentalists who make the worst neighbors.

Here's the thing. Islam has been round for about 1400 years. Know what Christians were doing at about the same point in their history? Crusades and Inquisitions: killing people of other religions, and locking people up for daring to speak against them. The only difference is, modern Muslims have access to more technology than Christians did in the Middle Ages.

You have to wonder if this is a cycle that all major religions go through.

Hillary vs the Man-Child

I don't know if you heard, but on September 11, 2012, there was an attack on the Benghazi consulate that killed 4 Americans. Since then, the GOP, who's always been jealous that Bush had his "My Pet Goat" day over a decade ago, has been trying to spin it into some kind of monumental failure of intelligence. They've also been trying to claim that it's evidence of the incompetence of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton.

Let’s look at it from a clear-eyed perspective, though. It occurred at the same time as riots across the Middle East, because of the trailer for a film called Innocence of Muslims, which was seen to be blasphemous by followers of Islam.

The timing of the attacks caused some confusion, which the Republicans have been trying to exploit politically ever since.

Secretary Clinton set up an Accountability Review Board to investigate the actions of the various players, and while it pointed out some failures in the process, none of the problems were the fault of the Secretary of State.

Despite the fact that the review had already taken place, the Congressional GOP wanted to waste time holding their own hearings on the attack. Because if there’s one thing that Republicans enjoy, it’s getting to waste their time and other people’s money while getting to act like massive dicks on television. And one of the biggest dicks at the hearing was Rand Paul (whose hair looks suspiciously pubic anyway), who decided that he didn't need to ask questions, he was just going to lecture his betters for just under 2 minutes.

(You have to appreciate how, at right about the 40 second mark, Hillary realized that somebody had pressed his "bag of douche" button, and just closed her notebook, put her chin in her hand with a bored look, and just let him hump her leg until he was done.)



Couple of thoughts on that.

First of all, it isn't the job of the Secretary of State to read every cable from every one of the 285 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic facilities worldwide.

Second... well, let's put it this way.

For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program — well below the $2.15  billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans' proposed cuts to her department would be "detrimental to America’s national security" — a charge Republicans rejected.

But really, that's not the best part here. Let's consider just five short sentences from the middle of Little Randi's spew.

"I'm glad that you're accepting responsibility. I think ultimately with your leaving that you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11. And I really mean that. Had I been president and found you did not read the cables from Benghazi and from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I think it's inexcusable."

Isn't that great? He thinks this is the worst tragedy since the original 9/11. You know, I'm curious how he came to that conclusion. Really. I am.

Is it because it was an attack on an embassy? Well, we've had seven embassies and consulates attacked since 2001.

Was it because four Americans were killed? Well, hell: we lost 4,409 military, 13 DoD civilians and 2 journalists in Iraq since we invaded in 2003; we've lost 2,047 US military personnel, 3 DoD civilians and 27 journalists (of varying nationalities) in Afghanistan since 9/11. And little Randi, who's served a big two years in the Senate, supported the war in Afghanistan and was opposed to withdrawing troops from Iraq.

And bear in mind, Junior said "worst tragedy" - we have to consider hurricanes, fires, floods, shipwrecks, car pileups, school shootings, and cases of horse-induced arson or airborne fire extinguishers.

Had I been president... I would have relieved you of your post

We should just ignore the monumental ego that it takes to cough up a joke like that, and just be thankful that Rand Paul has less chance of getting elected President than his father ever did.

The price of propaganda

OK, let's be real.

What is the effect of years of anti-Muslim bigotry being spewed, screaming about "sharia law is taking over!" and "they won't stop until every Christian is dead!" and every other ignorant statement puked up by Pam Geller and her ilk?



A blond Norwegian Christian kills other Norwegian non-Muslims on the theory that he was fighting a war against the encroachment of Islam.

But that was an easy one, right?

OK, then. What is the effect of years of people shouting "baby killer!" and "abortion is murder!" and trying to defund or destroy Planned Parenthood at every opportunity?



Some toothless inbreeder tries to firebomb a Planned Parenthood clinic, apparently not aware that diesel fuel is a terrible accelerant, as it does not explode and has a flashpoint of 143°F. Which is why he caused minimal damage.

Oh, and diesel is currently more expensive than gasoline.

Oh, and one more thing: that particular Planned Parenthood clinic didn't perform abortions!

One wonders how humanity manages to survive, when they seem to be racing headlong back toward the feces-flinging stage.

Whose side is this guy on? (+ video is back!)

The man in the video is ex-American Adam Yahiye Gadahn (formerly Adam Pearlman - go figure), spokesmodel and operative for al Qaeda. If the sound is a little muddy, I suspect they had to keep editing out the sounds of NRA members spontaneously combusting.

The NRA has always opposed keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists, and closing the gun-show loophole.

Why does the NRA hate America? Why are they working with terrorists to destroy our country?
_________________

Update: Apparently, Youtube took down the video for violating their terms of service. (And, really, I suppose that telling people to go to gun shows and buy guns to wage jihad should be a violation of their TOS...) Fortunately, it's hosted elsewhere. Crooks and Liars, for instance.

Welcome to Abbottabad

Local forecast - partly cloudy, high 32°C, low 14° C … less one infamous tourist (terrorist).

The etymology of the name is a compound of two words, Abbott and Abad. Abbott refers to General Sir James Abbott, a British army officer after whom the city and the district are named.  Abad means a place of living in Urdu.  Note:  Abad is also the old English spelling of the modern word Abode.  Oh, yes.  Before I forget:

Obama got Osama!

Monday morning update: This article by Juan Cole, Obama and the End of Al Qaeda offers a worthwhile retrospective.

Boiling the Tea kettle

"The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."

-US Supreme Court Justices Hugo Black and William Douglas-

Anyone in the US with more political awareness than a telephone pole knows that there's a whole lot of loosely related and sometimes contradictory stuff hidden under the camouflage blanket of "we're for smaller, less intrusive government," including the somewhat contrary and certainly not Libertarian opinion that that government may, at its own discretion, hide its actions, its statements and defend its deceptions and coverups, making the exercise of protected rights a crime. That so many who feel concern about paternalistic government can none the less defend it passionately and thus sanctify subterfuge is puzzling. That members of that government can ask that we treat the media and its sources as traitors and terrorists with all the extra-legal powers it possesses, is hardly puzzling at all. That the need to cover its ass supersedes any respect for the Constitution it pretends to worship: that government can be in terror of being exposed, hardly makes the case, in my opinion, for Terrorism. Perhaps the test of being a true and loyal Republican is not to think of Richard Nixon at this point.

So how do we feel about Wikileaks release of leaked State Department documents yesterday? Well at least one Republican congressman recommends that we move that organization under another one of those capacious and convenient camo blankets: the one we call terrorism, or 'terrism' in the dialect spoken by a great number of self-styled conservatives. So, by the gerrymandering of ill-defined symbols, we manage to expose -- or at least the horrifically hyperbolic Rep. Peter King (R-NY) hopes to expose Wikileaks and perhaps anyone revealing that which slithers through the wires to and from Washington, to the dire and drastic treatment we afford "foreign terrorist organizations." To expose embarrassing diplomatic cables showing many world leaders at their scurrilous antics, is "worse than a military attack" he said last night.

King, says CBS News, New York, has written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder asking that Julian Assange of Wikileaks be prosecuted as a spy for publishing 'sensitive' information given him by a whistleblowing soldier, even though that's what the mainstream media does, is supposed to do and the Court has affirmed their constitutional right to do.

It will be interesting to see the Tea Party reaction to this -- if there is one. They'll be torn between maintaining support for the First Amendment and the role of a free press and the treasured myth of its untrustworthy liberal bias. I'd like to think that it might increase pressure to actually define what they mean by a smaller, less intrusive and more limited government, but as they say - a watched teapot never boils.

Times square terrorism

By Captain Fogg

The big question today is: how long will it take the media to patch together a reason to blame the car bomb that didn't go off in Times Square today on President Obama? I've already had e-mails to the effect that, because the Coast Guard chose, as a cost cutting method, to turn off the obsolete LORAN-C coastal navigation system last February, our "enemies" are now sure to attack us.

The rural right is going to blame it on Obama, who as they know favors the use of the police and FBI to capture terrorists instead of the Armed forces using lots of 9 billion dollar bombers -- just like the unmanly socialist wimp he is. Never mind that it works.

Of course the Pakistani Taliban has already claimed responsibility, but it's already been proved that Obama's college education was financed by Pakistani agents who knew he'd be president someday. He might just as well admit the whole thing.

Another question that's been on my mind is whether or not the two latest attempts to blow stuff up were intentionally defective. After all the real objective is to bleed us dry and turn us against each other and that's just what is happening. Give the Nigerian kid just enough powder to blow his Nigerian gonads off, park the SUV with propane tanks and a smoke bomb on a New York street and you have us all running around screaming for blood, begging to give our civil rights away and destabilizing the country without the risk of major retaliation and without spending much money. It's just conjecture, of course. I'm just sayin' as the foxy folk say.

land of the Prison, home of the Coward

Yes, our personal freedom has been irrevocably damaged by a weak attempt to control swashbuckling Insurance company practices and there's nothing ahead but free fall into the pit of Socialism - or Fascism if your paranoia runs better in that direction. I can't get through an hour without hearing the whining about "Obamacare" and "American values."

Of course there's little fear that the attempt to make it legal for a suspect to be held forever without trial will jeopardize our "freedom" at all. There's not too much concern that proof of innocence can't overturn a death sentence either. Freedom you see, is a personal, even solipsistic thing and like personal income, we Libertarians don't want to share it or spread it around. I need to be free to do anything, free from any responsibility to the country, but you can rot in hell, for all I care. Some call that Libertarian, some conservative, but either attempt is like pasting a label to Teflon - it won't stick. What it really is, is panic and what it's really not is justice. Yes, I know, if your one of those Glennbecky sorts, you'll insist that justice itself is one of many gates to hell and the corridor to Communism, but if you're one of those, you belong there anyway.

But here's an example or two: Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate's Armed Services, Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, wants to talk us into legislation that allows a "terrorism suspect" to be held forever without charges and without counsel. That's right, I said suspect. What's a suspect? it's whatever some justice department apparatchik or some informant or unnamed source says it is.

“There has to be some type of statute -- and he’s been clear on that -- for indefinite detention,” said Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop. An accused person is "too dangerous to release; but we also aren’t going to try them in either a military or a civilian court. So there has to be a system for that, and that’s why Senator Graham is looking for a legal framework."

Too bad there's no longer any framework to determine whether someone is actually dangerous, is a terrorist or even what terrorism is under such legislation, but never mind -- the government just knows and we're comfortable with that. Limited justice and limited freedom you see, is limited government.

And that doesn't scare you; not like filling out a census form, not like keeping your insurance from being canceled the day after they find that tumor because you had an unreported toothache in 1972. None the less, we want limited government, but only as concerns us, not them. A life sentence for suspicion is

"un-American and violates our commitment to due process and the rule of law,"

says the ACLU, as you'd expect from those Commies. Don't they understand we're afraid? Don't they understand that American values aren't worth taking a risk for?

They aren't worth taking a risk for in Texas; just ask Troy Davis, sentenced to die for a brutal triple murder in a trial so flawed it makes my hair stand on end. One of the victims, for instance, had complained of abuse and threats from a third party, who was not even interviewed by police. Ten years ago David Protess, at The Innocence Project at Northwestern University, whose group has exonerated 17 condemned prisoners using DNA evidence the court never saw, re-examined the case with his students and concluded Skinner is innocent. Texas won't reconsider a conviction based on new evidence. In Texas, innocence is no defense and Texas, for all it's guns and bravado is so terrified of Davis that they're willing to kill him and the hell with reasonable doubt. Fortunately, the Supreme court isn't from Texas and has granted a stay, just an hour before the execution

Sure, we want limited government, but with unlimited power to do whatever feels expedient and damn the very idea of social justice and screw anyone who ever thought the USA was worth fighting for. Don't you understand we're afraid?

CRIMINALIZING MENTAL ILLNESS: THE SAD CASE OF JIHAD JANE

Recently, our cables news stations sensationalized the story of Colleen LaRose, now infamously known as Jihad Jane. What disturbs me are superficial reports by our mainstream media that refuse to tell the story inside the story. According to the indictment against Ms. LaRose, she allegedly "recruited men on the internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad."  End of story. Arrested, tried in the court of shallow journalism, and condemned … all within 30 seconds on the nightly news.

There is, however, is another side to Jihad Jane that has been ignored by our vaunted MSM (source):

LaRose's ex-boyfriend, Kurt Gorman, 47, with whom she lived in Pennsburg, remained mystified yesterday about how the 5-foot-2 woman with dirty-blonde hair turned into an alleged terror conspirator from a person who cared for his frail mother until her death, and for his father, who died last summer.

(…)

The apparent suicide attempt occurred on May 21, 2005, according to a report by Upper Perkiomen police, about a month after her father's death, which had come on the heels of her brother's death.

Upper Perkiomen Police Officer Michael Devlin was summoned to Gorman's Pennsburg apartment by LaRose's worried mother and sister, in Ferris, Texas, who said that Colleen had called them, drinking and brooding about her dad, and had told them that she had taken eight to 10 prescription pills.

Devlin said he told Gorman that LaRose should get counseling.

There was a time not long ago when the First Amendment protected the rights of people who spoke truth or lies in any measure … and protected the rights of our mentally ill population including those who heard voices in their heads.

In an age of fear and paranoia, it seems, our mentally ill population is the first to have their rights violated.  Too bad we still regard mental illness with superstition and suspicion.  A disturbed person who self-medicates with a cocktail of drugs and alcohol should first be treated for substance abuse and then the underlying disorder.

Deaths in a family can trigger an adjustment disorder. Over time, an untreated adjustment disorder can lead to further decompensation, including disorganized or delusional thinking. There are case files rife with stories of persons suffering from bipolar disorder that remained undiagnosed until the subject ran afoul of the criminal justice system. Clearly, Jihad Jane falls within range of these diagnostic possibilities.

Too bad our law enforcement officials waste their time (and taxpayer resources) on disturbed persons when there are far more dangerous terrorists loosed upon the world.  Too bad our healthcare system is inadequate to the task of early intervention and treatment of mental illness. Too bad there are folks like Jihad Jane who enter the criminal justice system where punishment takes precedence over treatment.

Delusional thinking? Voices in the head? It makes one wonder: On which side of law enforcement are the real zealots and crazies?

H/T to our esteemed colleague, Robert Stein of Connecting the Dots, whose original post inspired this response.

Something in the water

New York City water tastes like turpentine
Lord, Lord
And I ain't gonna drink it any more

-from an old blues song-

There must be something in the water if former New York Mayor Ed Koch is insisting that "hundreds of millions" of Muslims are terrorists, but that we're all too afraid to mention it for fear of offending. I don't think it's turpentine.

He didn't give Foxman Neil Cavuto any source for this magic number yesterday or for any other part of his assertion or did he attempt to explain why anyone would feel we're afraid to offend countries we're bombing, maintaining sanctions on, or already occupying. Is it true what they say about New Yorkers if not blowing someone to bits is considered timidity or perhaps an excess of politeness?

And then there's Rudy "9/11" Giuliani who announced to ABC's George Stephanopoulos today that there were no domestic terrorist attacks during George W. Bush's watch.

" . . . we had no domestic attacks under Bush; we had one under Obama."

There must be a lot of something in the water. Between 9/11 and the Anthrax bio-attack, there were over 3000 victims of domestic terrorism. To think there were people who wanted to elect this putz president!

The real agenda of course, is to find fault with the president for not running down the street screaming "terror - terror" which the victims of Republimentia feel is the best way to deal with an unsuccessful suicide bombing. He needs to be more theatrical, to talk more of fear than of courage, to scream and yell and look for bogey men rather than calmly to get on with the business of improving our defenses. Sadly it's not just ex-mayors of New York drinking from this well. They're hardly alone in their hatred of Democrats of color and they're hardly alone in their desire to make the government so dysfunctional that they can slither back into control amidst the chaos. There are millions of them, you know.

On a clear day

"I don’t see a clear angle on the anus." Said Adam's Apple Ann Coulter to Bill O'Reilly last night.

Never mind Ann, I think we have a very good angle on an anus right here.


Objecting to the idea of Body scanners at airports, Ann insisted they wouldn't be effective because you can't look up people's rectums or under their foreskins, so those would be a great place to hide bombs. Of course Muslims circumcise their sons but that's OK, nobody expects sanity from Ann and her fans wouldn't know sanity if they saw it. They sure seem familiar with looking at assholes in the mirror though.

What a field day for the heat

Tourism is big business in Florida and in these weak-dollar days, much of it is from abroad. Of course it's not what it used to be and one of the reasons I've heard from regular visitors from Europe is the hassle of entry. Fingerprinting, revealing financial records, confiscation of computers are amongst the stories I hear and I've met people who have their Florida Winter houses and condos up for sale, because they're tired of being treated as insurgents.

Arriving on the Queen Mary in Queens' Grill class, you may feel in the lap of luxury, but one foot in the good old USA and you may feel that bad old cold war Soviet bloc vibe. It's going to get worse and yes, it's because the terrorists have won again without having to blow up anything.

General Thomas McInerney USAF (Ret.) said on Fox this weekend that we should strip search Muslim men entering the US and he may get his wish.

"every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening."

says the TSA. All passengers flying into the United States from abroad will be subject to random screening. Starting today, there will be a lot of patting down of brown behinds because although there are only four countries listed as "State Sponsors of Terrorism:" Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, an unnamed Administration official told Politico today that passengers from other countries like Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen will be searched as well. Think that's going to stop them? I don't either. One would-be attacker with a Canadian or UK passport will force us to put everyone up against he wall - and what about an American citizen with a surname like Jones -- or McVeigh? Think the TSA is relieved we won't be hosting the Olympics in Chicago? Me too.

Our policy of acting incrementally and only in response to specific provocation makes it all too easy and particularly when no plot need actually succeed in doing anything but costing us more and making us panic. Why not simply recruit some passionate fool and give him a defective device when there's less chance of retaliation and it still hurts us so much? Face it, terror is the objective of terrorism and they just won again.

Deja two, Deja three. . .

You probably have heard all about the second nutjob on a plane scare today. Same Amsterdam - Detroit flight, but this time the man did not come out of the toilet with a bomb, but an attitude. Naturally the crew was more than curious as to whether his half hour sojourn suggested criminal intent, but the unnamed man of so far unknown ethnicity became aggressive and abusive when asked and -- once again -- we had a plane sitting on the ground in Detroit while authorities screened all the baggage.

You probably haven't heard about another incident which happened yesterday afternoon at Palm Beach International. Seems someone decided their first class seat wasn't quite classy enough and despite the crew's attempt to make her feel as special as Ivana Trump insists on being made to feel, she launched into a tirade even this old salt would be proud of.

Some small children apparently weren't respectful enough so she started calling them "little fuckers" and yelling "fuck you" at their parents. After the plane was forced to return and the police came aboard, she refused to exit and gave the deputies and all within earshot the same carnal advice.

Of course we have flexible standards for terrorism and so Ms. Trump was deemed only terrible and not sufficiently terroristic for the FBI to be interested. I'm quite sure that if she weren't famous and had been wearing a hijab she'd have spent quite some time in custody, but she wasn't of course. She's just another self-important Palm Beach socialite who in a more just world would be another old woman selling fish from a pushcart.