COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Boston manhunt IR video: An infrared video was released by the Boston police revealing the hiding place of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a boat in the backyard of a house in the Boston suburb of Watertown.



I have a question: If Boston had to be shut down to capture the two terrorists and everyone kept indoors, what was Obama and Michelle doing there before they were caught?

Did Obama’s unnecessary visit to Boston on Thursday morning divert police assets resulting in the death of MIT campus police officer, Sean Collier that same evening?



Boston lockdown: The new normal?
By: Josh Gerstein and Darren Samuelsohn
April 20, 2013 07:12 AM EDT POLITICO

   The unprecedented manhunt in Boston that concluded successfully Friday night earned law enforcement authorities the gratitude of the nation.

But as relief replaces fear, the debate about what this episode means for the future is already beginning. And one of the most unsettling questions is whether the violence-related lockdown of a major U.S. city — an extraordinary moment in American history — sets a life-altering precedent.

There are already worries that the effort to protect the people of Boston contained an element of overreaction. Local authorities told the city and nearby suburbs to “shelter in place” throughout the day and into the evening. They closed businesses, shuttered government buildings and suspended all public transportation in the metro area.

That decision concerned some political leaders and policy experts.
Former Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said it is “hard to imagine what could justify directing the entire population of the city to ‘shelter in place.’”

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, stopped short of directly criticizing the decision, but he lamented the development as a win of sorts for terrorists.

“When you have lives at stake, it’s up to law enforcement,” Ruppersberger said. “But it’s an accomplishment when someone shuts down an entire community and people can’t go outside and are told to stay away. We have to stand up as Americans to this. … We’ve got to continue to go to baseball games, continue to go to events. We can’t allow these people to shut us down.”
Michael Cohen, a former speechwriter for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, said authorities reacted too strongly.

“I just think it’s insane what’s going on here,” Cohen said. “I understand the need to be cautious and tell people to be cautious, but to tell people to stay inside because one guy is loose is just crazy.”

“If there was some serial killer on the loose, no one would suggest that we do a lockdown of a whole city,” said Cohen, now a fellow at the Century Foundation. “To me, it just plays on our outsized fears of terrorism. … Part of it is just cover your ass business by public officials.”

Liberal blogger Marcy Wheeler noted a tension between the shelter-in-place order in Boston and President George W. Bush’s speeches after Sept. 11 urging Americans to stimulate the economy and to visit Disney World.

“Total lockdown to catch one remaining culprit? Or ‘go shopping’?” Wheeler asked on Twitter. (Bush never used that precise phrase.)
At mid-afternoon Friday, a Boston city emergency official went before cameras to say that those who were at work when the order to get off the streets came could now drive home. But he acknowledged that would be difficult for those who use public transportation. He suggested taking taxis.

At a news conference Friday evening — before police captured suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) rescinded the stay-indoors order after hours of door-to-door searching and announced the reopening of the city’s mass transit system. He said it was time to “return to living our lives.” In response to a question, the governor defended what he acknowledged was an extraordinary request to the public.

“There was a firefight out here last night: some 200 rounds and explosives,” Patrick said. “So we were very justified, based on what we knew about the investigation in taking what we knew was a big step.”
Experts said the decision to close down the city had less do to with direct threat to members of the public and more to do with allowing the police to focus on the Watertown neighborhood — the small municipality where they found Tsarnaev hiding in a boat on Friday night.

Keeping city residents off the streets and businesses closed made it easier for Boston to send many of its police officers across the river to Watertown, where the Boston cops joined in house-by-house searches and helped keep up a perimeter so the Tsarnayev couldn’t escape.
“It’s preserving limited public safety resources to focus on this hunt,” former Homeland Security assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs Juliette Kayyem said on CNN. “It’s really to relieve the pressure on public safety.”

Paul Rosenzweig, a former senior Homeland Security Department official under Bush, said he was stunned that there had been no successful, small-scale attacks in the wake of the 2001 strikes on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

While it’s still unclear whether Monday’s attack has roots abroad, Rosenzweig said he fears that it could be the leading edge of a wave of smaller-scale attacks on lower-profile targets in the U.S. “If they decide to go after soft targets, marathons, malls, college basketball games, a million other places Americans gather — the Iowa State Fair — those are all targets,” he said. “The problem we have faced and successfully dealt with for 12 years becomes a quantum leap harder and, frankly, the number of failures is going to get greater.”

Rosenzweig said the shutdown “may be overly broad, but they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

“If they had a more narrow targeted shutdown and the suspect broke through the cordon and killed someone, there’d be a huge” wave of criticism from the media and the public, he said.

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) defended the Boston lockdown but said there deserves to be some second-guessing of the decision for Obama to attend a memorial service Thursday before the bombers had been apprehended. The violence that played out late Thursday might have happened while Obama was in town, which would have left police split between protecting the president and subduing the alleged bombers.

“As you look back at it, I think people will think twice about it,” said the ex-senator, who served as chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. “I’d say the next time, in a situation like this, I’d be cautious about convening a memorial service too quickly before we have some certainty about what’s going on, including bringing in the president of the United States.”

At the Friday evening briefing, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino thanked businesses for shutting down. “It was a big economic loss for them,” he said.

Boston’s metro area had $326 billion in GDP in 2011, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data. That boils down to about $1 billion in activity per day, but economists who study regional data say it won’t be that big of a hit since the city’s residents will eventually be freed up to leave their homes and spend the money they would have otherwise spent Friday. Many likened it to the February blizzard that left the Northeast without power and buried under two feet of snow for several days.

“It’s like a snowstorm,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economist. “I’d guess that most of that will be made up when safety returns.”

Returning to everyday lives since the bombings hasn’t exactly been easy for the city. More than 17,500 people attended the Bruins’ 3-2 win Wednesday night against the Buffalo Sabres, the first home game since the marathon. But the city has been slow to get back to getting work done this week — and Friday, amid the lockdown, the Bruins and the Red Sox both announced they were postponing their games.
“It’s not good for productivity,” Clayton-Matthews said.

Some critics of the Boston lockdown noted that during a hunt for a suspected cop killer in Los Angeles in February, some specific targets like schools were closed and checkpoints were established, but there was no effort to quarantine the entire metro area.

Following the 9/11 attacks, which were of a far larger scope, all civilian airplane traffic in the U.S. and Canada was grounded until Sept. 13, when service slowly resumed. Reagan National Airport in Washington reopened Oct. 4 under tighter security.

Financial activity shuttered in lower Manhattan with the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11. The New York Stock Exchange closed until Sept. 17, the longest suspension since the Great Depression. Other major landmarks also closed that day, including the Space Needle, Walt Disney World, and the Sears Tower. Major League Baseball postponed all games through Sept. 16, while the National Football League bumped the next Sunday schedule, which in turn meant delaying the Super Bowl by a week. The Emmy Awards — scheduled for Sept. 16 — were also delayed by nearly two months.
Cohen noted that despite the enormous tragedy in New York on Sept. 11, life in many parts of the city continued relatively close to normal. “I remember sitting in SoHo where people were sitting outside having lunch. People were not cowering in fear,” he said.

86 comments:

  1. “Intimidation doesn’t work, and we’ve been doing it for a long time, and so there’s a lot of resentment building up,” Ron Paul said.

    Criticizing drone war, Paul said there are “50 innocent civilians killed for every terrorist.”

    ---

    Is that true?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Could Ron Paul tell a lie?

    Would he know the difference?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dakota Did Good

    Spun out completely and still came in 4th in the Celebrity Division of the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix.
    Carolla won the pro division after winning the Celebrity last year.

    ReplyDelete

  4. I have a question: If Boston had to be shut down to capture the two terrorists and everyone kept indoors, what was Obama and Michelle doing there before they were caught?

    ReplyDelete
  5. We certainly published the playbook on how a terrorist network could shut down every major American City.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The reaction of the Boston authorities defies logic.

      That the people of Boston let 'em do it, really boggles the mind.
      Little wonder people are moving west.


      Having events in five to ten cities at a time would be an easy play, if the US were facing a real enemy. That they haven't, evidence that they are not.

      Delete
  6. …but what about security concerns Obama and Michelle? Was this a complete government overreaction after a very bad political decision by Obama?

    Did the presence of Obama and Michelle divert police assets away from the investigation and possibly had an indirect result in getting the MIT police officer killed?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's never been a concern of theirs.

      Was it him or Bill Clinton that screwed up LAX for hours to get a haircut.

      ...must have been Bill.

      But Obama's never been concerned about shutting down traffic in LA, or anywhere else when they've got fundraisin or PR work to do.

      Delete
    2. And Air Force Ones and associated fleets are gonna need major overhauls after those two narcisists are finally done with them.

      Delete
  7. The murders and maiming occurred Monday.

    On Thursday, Obama is attending church services, making speeches and visiting the hospital. Instead of bringing a bullhorn, he brought his teleprompter.

    Police and security force are diverted from the search for the terrorists. They cannot know how many are involved or where they are yet Obama and Michelle are profiling in all the correct political place.

    Obama leaves on Thursday afternoon.

    About 10:20 p.m., shots are fired on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, about 2 miles north of downtown Boston. Ten minutes later, an MIT campus police officer, Sean Collier, 26, is shot multiple times while still in his police cruiser during an apparent clash with the bombing suspects. He is later pronounced dead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. None of that blood, or collateral civilian kills in dronings, or the NEEDLESS deaths of Heros in Benghazi can be attributed to BHO.

      ...cause he says so.

      Delete
  8. QuirkSat Apr 20, 06:19:00 PM EDT

    "America is an empire, we have been either building that empire or maintaining that empire since the early years of independance and continue through the present day."

    ---

    Yes (or no) so what?

    Does that justify absurd sophmoric statements like "we stole the Southwest from Mexico"

    ...as if the context of them stealing it from the injuns in the recent past is of no consequence.

    ie that game can be played back ad infinitum for as long as one is willing to spend the time.

    Why one would is beyond me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Because the US did steal the Southwest, California, etc, from the Mexicans.

    We took Hawaii from the King, there, and Hawaii is not even in the Americas.

    One empire displaces others, time marches on. To deny that, imbecilic.

    The Spanish displaced the Aztecs and other American Indians, the Mexicans displaced the Spanish, and we took it from the Mexicans. Lots of US citizens were illegal immigrants, in the Southwest, from Texas to California.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. US actions are not exempted from history or reality.

      Delete
  10. "One empire displaces others, time marches on. To deny that, imbecilic."

    Agreed.

    Thus to state that we stole it from the Mexicans, as if that is any any way unique, less than informative, to say the least, much less profound.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one said it was unique or profound, doug, just that it was.

      Delete
    2. It is history that you deny.
      No one said it was unique or profound, or that it should be.

      Only that it is an obvious fact.

      Delete
    3. The Big fish ate the little fish.
      Well whoop de do.
      Big Fish are Empire builders.
      So what?

      Delete
    4. So what?

      Q and I are correct.
      The US has built an Empire.

      The question, now, is how to best manage it.

      As I said the other day, if the Soviets and KGB retreads running Russia, now, cannot maintain control of Chechnya with a heavy hand, it is unlikely the US can manage their cousins "softly".

      So, should try to manage them, regardless of costs to them and US, or withdraw?

      That is the what.

      Delete
    5. What are the costs and benefits in the US trying to manage the Islamic Arc?

      How should the US go about it?
      Dancing with Saudi Princes and kowtowing to their King seems to be the current political techniques. Militarily, we've spent a trillion dollars and have squat to show for it.

      The current crop of Federals and those they replaced have all been inept and incompetent at managing foreign affairs, on a cost/benefit basis.

      Delete
    6. The US military has pissed away hundreds of billions into the sand.

      Two bombers shut down Boston, what could twenty well trained saboteurs accomplish?

      Does the US really want to fight these folks in our homeland, as well as theirs?
      Is it worth it, on a cost/benefit basis?

      Delete
    7. Meanwhile, John Kerry, genius and SOS, is passing out $123,000,000 in so-called “nonlethal” military equipment to the so-called Syrian rebels in the tribal turf war in Syria. There is no such thing as nonlethal military equipment. All military equipment supports lethality. This equipment with made in USA emblems will get people killed and we will create a wealth of new avengers.

      Who are these rebels?

      Delete
    8. Apr 18, 2013 at 10:41 am

      Gen. Martin Dempsey

      Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said on Wednesday that he is more reluctant to support arming Syria’s rebels than he had been previously, saying that the situation in Syria is “more confusing on the opposition side today than it was six months ago.”

      Back in February, Dempsey said that he had supported a plan put forth several months prior by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus to arm the rebels.

      But during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Dempsey, in an exchange with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), said that he has since changed his view:

      DEMPSEY: Well, at the time the … we felt like we had a clear enough understanding of the moderate opposition. And we felt as though it was in the long-term interest of Syria as a nation-state that the institutions wouldn’t fail and that the time was proper at that moment to intervene that way. … My military judgment is that now that we have seen the emergence of Al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham notably, and now that we have seen photographs of some of the weapons that is have been flowing into Syria in the hands of those groups, now I am more concerned than I was before.

      Delete
    9. They're Wahhabi.

      The Muslim Brotherhood.

      Proxies of the Qatari and the Saudi.
      Our allies in that region.

      Delete
    10. al-Qaeda (AQ) has links to various jihadist groups throughout the world and is considered the world’s foremost terrorist organization. In a multi-part series I will be covering a new and highly coordinated group called the al-Nusra Front, which translates as: The Support Front for the People of Syria.


      The al-Nusra Front: al-Qaeda’s Syrian Love Child

      Eric Harroun: Not Our Soldier of Fortune

      The al-Nusra Front is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, but it also finds coordination from AQ elders in Pakistan, Turkey, and Lebanon. The jihadists are believed to receive their orders and mandates from Abu Du’a who is the senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Abu Du’a, aka Ibrahim ‘Awwad Ibrahim ‘Ali al-Badri, has been the AQI leader since 2010 and has yet to be apprehended.

      The group announced its creation on 23 January 2012 during the Syrian civil war, and was later deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The group also falls under the following aliases: Jabhat al-Nusrah, Jabhet al-Nusra, The Victory Front, and Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant. I will continue to refer to them as al-Nusra.

      From November of 2011 to December of 2012 the group has claimed responsibility for over 600 attacks and has killed and wounded hundreds if not thousands of Syrians. It is estimated that al-Nusra has approximately 10,000 fighters, but other estimates say they could account for as much as one quarter of the Syrian rebels–that number appears to be on the rise even with the increasing amount of suicide bombers sending themselves to Allah.

      Delete
    11. …and we are giving them an additional $123,000,000 in non-lethal military equipment.

      STUPID ALERT !!

      Are two stove top pressure cookers non-lethal?

      Delete
    12. Assad is not popular with Israeli, he is not popular with the Wahhabi Arabs.

      The Turks, well, they do not need the problem, They have enough of their own. The politicos do not want to have to use their Army. The Turkish politicos are trying to decrease the political power and authority of their Army, not create battlefield leaders and heroes.

      Delete
    13. STUPID ALERT 2 !!

      Officials said it is expected to include equipment such as body armor, night vision goggles and other military equipment that is defensive in nature.

      Think assholes. Remember the two jokers that went wild in California, body-armored up, and with assault weapons, outgunned every cop that came in their way? That two man assault team resulted in every US police force converting to robo-cop mode.

      I wonder what the Jihadis will do with that US surplus body armor? This should be fun.

      Delete
    14. al-Nusra’s goal is to implement an Islamic state with Shari’a Law as its foundation. This group is willing to use any strategies and tactics necessary to fulfill their goals. On February 7th, 2013 al-Nusra claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb within a bus that killed approximately 90 people outside of a factory in Selmiyah, Syria located in Hama Province. The following account was taken by Sehaib Anjarini–reporter from As-Safir newspaper of Lebanon from Abu Malik, one of the injured:

      “At the end of the workday, I saw a bus carrying 20 passengers coming from Bsirin (a nearby village) and approaching the factory’s entrance at a high rate of speed. The guards rushed toward it and ordered it to stop before it reached the main gate. The high number of guards caused the bus to stop about 30 meters from the gate. Then the driver detonated the bus. … The explosion was awful. The other buses flew into the air. I fell on the ground and felt pain everywhere. My heart almost stopped. I tried to stand up but bursts of bullets were fired at us from the direction of the farmland. So I lay on the ground, where I saw body parts everywhere. … I fainted, and I woke up in the hospital to find that I had fractures in the hip, back and hands. Had the bus been able to reach the main gate, the damage would have been much worse.”

      Delete
    15. Those Turk politicos are using the rising tide of Isllam to legitimize their political power and independence from the Generals.

      They will not want to enter Syria, overtly.

      They will ride with Saudi, as we do.
      Providing a conduit through which supplies to the rebels flow.

      The US military, prepositioning itself in Jordon.

      Delete
    16. From the Guardian, December 2012.
      Doubt much has changed.


      Russian military presence in Syria poses challenge to US-led intervention


      Advisers deployed with surface-to-air systems bolster President Assad's defences and complicate outcome of any future strikes

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/23/syria-crisis-russian-military-presence

      Delete
  11. Fundamentally the flex belt is a belt you strap on about your
    waist and 3 specifically placed pads are what help contract your abs.



    Here is my site; Flex Belt Discount

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. boobie, go play your entrepreneurial games elsewhere.

      Delete
    2. I'm not in the pads for abs business, Rat. Sounds like an interesting device though.

      With all this talk of groups stealing land from other groups, I'd think you'd support the Israelis. After all, they the oldest claim to the land of Israel, including the west bank, of anyone still alive.

      When are you going to move off the stolen land you are living on there in Phoenix?

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. It's not in Phoenix, boobie, it's in Scottsdale.

      When the US military totally fails and the Apache, Spanish, Mexican or Chinese move me.
      Truth be known, the Apache are quite happy with the current situation.

      The Spanish, they're not capable of a naval or air assault against Scottsdale.

      The Mexicans are using asymmetric nonviolent strategies and tactics to regain an economic foothold in the parts of North America they lost.
      Y si, puedo habla espanol.

      Delete
  12. With respect to the lock-down of Boston - it wasn't done in response to the bombs going off it was done only after the shoot-out at MIT and the one kid got away bearing arms after demonstrating a willingness to use them.

    Actually, Rat, technically, the southwest US was not "stolen", it was bought and paid for. You being such a tickler for historical accuracy I think you know that but since it doesn't suit your argument choose to not mention it. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ash, it was bought at the point of a gun.
      After we defeated Mexico in multiple wars.

      Texas, was taken in a fight over slavery, from the Mexican perspective. Bowie had his slave with him, at the Alamo. Slavery was illegal in Mexico. The US immigrants wanted to bring their property with them. Exampled by Colonel Bowie.

      In 1848 the territory the US "bought" for $15 million was negotiated in the Treaty of Guadalupe, which ended the Mexican-American War. In civilian parlance, it was extortion.
      US Grant, in his memoirs, called it the greatest injustice he had ever seen.

      The Gadsden Purchase was not immediately after the M-A War, but six years later. The military and political situation had not changed, for the Mexicans

      Delete
    2. There you go - bought and paid for. They even had a nice little signing ceremony in Mexico City (if memory serves) and a relatively small contingent of US forces marched all the way down there to attend it :)

      Delete
    3. The loss of California struck at the heart of the Mexican economy. It was a loss they never have really recovered from.

      Delete
    4. oh, I thought they were just a lazy and shiftless people...

      Delete
    5. They are, for the most part. Take a good look at San Diego, and then across the border. All along our common border the story is the same. Culture counts.

      Delete
    6. ok, and all Americans are like you, boobie, a xenophobe.

      Delete
    7. Not a xenophobe, Ash. I like many foreigners. Most Hindus, nearly all Jews, many Europeans, most Asians, even some Canadians, heh.

      I am glad you've moved out of the country.

      Delete
    8. It's is not culture, boobie, it is laws and taxes.

      If the Mexicans were shiftless, GM and Ford would not have left Detroit, to build factories in Mexico.

      You are quite the racist, aren't you.

      Delete
    9. Moron. GM and Ford went there for the lower labor rates.

      Some Mexicans are not shiftless.

      Most are.

      The police are corrupt, the military is becoming corrupt, the politicians are corrupt, the courts are corrupt, half the nation seems to consist of drug gangs, and they all want to head here for the welfare, illegally.

      I'm never going to Mexico. Too risky.

      I wish you would, though.

      Delete
    10. You of course immediately suggested these young fellows were Jews from somewhere north of the Caucasus. Even named the group, which I had never heard of.

      No one else here even came close to saying that. Everyone here knew it wasn't the Jews. Some speculated maybe white crazy anti-government types, being it was Tax Day.

      You based your speculations on 'long noses', and your hatred of Jews.

      Delete
  13. Had the police not been diverted by Obama’s visit, the shootout may never have occurred.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The public, without being diverted by the Obama visit, may have been more alert and have noticed them.

    The visit was showboating by Obama. It was irresponsible and unnecessary at the time. Obama was aping the Bush Bullhorn 911 moment.

    ReplyDelete
  15. creeley23 said...
    Deuce said:

    Did Obama’s unnecessary visit to Boston on Thursday morning divert police assets resulting inadvertently in the death of MIT campus police officer, Sean Collier that same evening?

    I have a friend who works for the Boston Fire Dept. He says the Obama visit consumed a large amount of official resources. He believes the visit did hinder the investigation. Judging by all the confusion about the Wednesday courthouse press conference, Boston officials seemed to be in disarray.

    I don't know what the protocol is for a presidential appearance in a city in the midst of an ongoing manhunt for terrorists. It would have made sense for Obama to make his speech from Washington, though I understand the motivation for going to Boston.

    4/21/13, 8:47 AM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too bad Bush didn't come up with that excuse for doing his fly-over of New Orleans.

      Delete
    2. yea, no matter what you do the jackals will scream.

      Delete
  16. A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.

    “They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”


    from the article on Drudge

    I believe that is probably true, and we are dumb enough to let this type of people in here and allow them to become citizens.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Snippet from an article about the gunfire at the Colorado 'smoke out' -

    Damontay Wimberly told the Post he heard about seven shots.

    "Pow-pow-pow-pow-pow, about seven times," he said.

    Laura Forduno said the event was peaceful right up until the gunfire.

    I would suggest that Ms. Forduno lay off the weed for a while.


    Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/peace_love_dopeand_bullets.html#ixzz2R71MM2dm
    Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

    A comment worthy of Ash, of Jenny.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Great Drought appears to be broken. Oct. Ethanol is selling for $1.92/gal.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This Boston thing is kind of interesting in light of the gun control argument. On the one hand you have folk lamenting the lack of background checks on these two guys and how the FBI had checked out the older brother not so long ago but the NRA, and the Senate seem to think that background checks for Assault weapon ownership is too intrusive, not constitutional. At the same time we are hearing arguments that the surviving brother, a US citizen, should be declared an enemy combatant so that he isn't afforded his constitutional protections...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Each time I've bought a gun, I've had a background check. I've been photographed, and fingerprinted, and checked for law violations.

      I think Ash that the NRA is not so against background checks as you might think.

      If I sell or give a gun to my daughter, should we both undergo another check? Because she has undergone background checks too, photographed, fingerprinted, check for law violations.


      NRA chief ‘generally supportive’ of strong background checks
      By Meghashyam Mali - 01/17/13 09:20 AM ET

      The president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Thursday said that the organization was “generally supportive” of strong background checks on firearm purchasers.

      “We want to see the proposal, but as a general proposition, the NRA has been very supportive of doing background checks on purchasers through the instant system and secondly of adding the potentially violently mentally ill to the database,” said NRA chief David Keene in an interview with “CBS This Morning.”

      "The NRA has been one of the biggest supporters of the so-called NICS [National Instant Criminal Background Check] system, which provides background checks,” Keene said. “In the past, when they were talking about checks at gun shows, most guns sold at gun shows do involve a background check because it is sold by licensed dealers.”

      A CBS News poll released Thursday shows 92 percent of voters favor background checks for all buyers, including 85 percent of those from an NRA household.


      Read more: http://thehill.com/video/policy-areas/277685-nra-chief-generally-supportive-of-tighter-background-checks#ixzz2R7fx70v2
      Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

      You hardly ever know what you are talking about. That's why I like you so. Always confused, but not a mean bone in your body.

      Delete
    2. Always worth a chuckle too. That is a valuable characteristic in itself.

      Delete
    3. Well, I always get a chuckle out of Ash, even if you don't.

      Delete
    4. Your guy Obama, Rufus, is the biggest gun runner of them all. Hundreds of people have died in Mexico alone.

      Has he undergone any background checks?

      Delete
  20. The FBI knew the older bro. If they had had a few more cameras, and if they had been running facial recognition software . . . . . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There were running facial recognition systems, so I read, or heard on one of the talk stations.

      Delete
  21. I don't believe those two bozos built those bombs.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Building the bomb is easy.
    Detonating them, a tad more complicated.

    That is why Nichols went to the Philippines and, more likely than not, why the older bro went back to Russia. To learn how to detonate the explosives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As they used to say in the 193rd Inf Bde ...

      Training is everything and everything is training.

      Delete
  23. Amateurs -



    CBS television quoted investigators as saying that Tsarnaev suffered two serious wounds and had lost a lot of blood. It said investigators had speculated that one wound in the back of his neck could have been a suicide attempt.

    "They say it appears from the wound that he might have stuck a gun in his mouth and fired," said the report, which added that Tsarnaev could understand what those around him were saying.


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10008440/Boston-bomb-suspect-cannot-speak-as-doctors-treat-throat-wounds.html

    May have tried to go to Allah, and failed

    ReplyDelete
  24. .

    Officials admit one half of Guantanimo detainees on hunger strike.

    More than half of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo Bay are now on a hunger strike, US military officials confirmed Sunday.

    Of the 166 inmates at the controversial detention camp in Cuba, 84 are refusing all food as a protest against their indefinite confinement and conditions at the centre.

    The figure is almost double the number previously released by officials, although inmates and their lawyers have long suggested that a majority of inmates were taking part.

    Amongst those refusing food is Shaker Aamer, who has spent 11 years at Guantánamo. He remains behind bars despite being cleared for release six years ago.



    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/21/guantanamo-bay-hunger-strike-half-inmates

    .

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    Replies
    1. Prisoners of war, they could be in for the duration.

      This Shaker Aamer, is he still there at Gitmo because the US will not release him, or because no one will accept him if we did?

      Is he a man without a country?

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    2. .

      England has 'formally' asked for him back. He is a citizen and has a family there.

      However, you may be right. His chances are slim. His is intelligent and articulate. He has filed a lawsuit against MI6 charging they were involved in the torture he claims to have undergone. If he gets out, he goes public. No doubt. There are likely many in Britain that don't want him back.

      He is unique among the British citizens that were held in Cuba in that the only country he has been sanctioned to return to is Saudi Arabia where he has been threated with imprisonment.

      Will he ever be free? Doubtful. He has been in prison 11 years without a trial or even a charge. For the last six years, he has been classified as eligible for release yet he is still there.

      Will he return to Britain and his family? Questionable. It would only happen if that country makes a public and meaningful demand that he be released there. Chances? Again questionable. There are likely as many people there who don't want to ever see him again as do.

      And if he is released to Saudi Arabia? Forget about it. He will be gone and soon forgotten.

      .

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  25. Professor Williams looks to have solid academic credentials, research, and publications, and I would not for a moment suggest that he indoctrinated young Tsarnaev to hate America. He is a columnist for HuffPo, and probably sympathetic to the Chechens' cause. But he should not be a scapegoat. The point here is that or educational obsession with diversity is destructive for especially the children of immigrants. Usually, merely tends to ghettoize immigrants and fragment society. But when we admit refugees from war zones where Islam is a combatant, educating their children to immerse themselves in the hatreds of their former homelands seems a perverse policy, given the availability of jihad outreach to every disaffected young person.

    April 21, 2013
    What did Dzhokhar learn about Chechnya in school?
    Thomas Lifson


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/what_did_dzhokhar_learn_about_chechnya_in_school.html

    It's really strange. The United States hasn't been in Chechnya at all. We have communicated to the Russians we thought some of their methods were a little over the top. One begins to wonder if we are right in that, or wrong. Anyway it's never been any of our business. Why not attack a Russian Embassy in the United States then, instead of a Marathon?

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  26. I've never heard of Lutherans, Methodists, or, for that matter, Baptists being involved in jihad, in trying to persuade politicians with pressure cookers.

    Incidentally, look up Tamerlan's namesake. According to some estimates, the 14th century Muslim conqueror of south-central Asia killed 5% of the world's population. That's impressive, a wonderful role model for a modern follower of the Religion of Peace.

    Meanwhile, our president is baffled as to motive. In his press conference Friday, Mr. Obama did not mention religion at all, much less the I word. "Why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and our country resort to such violence [1:58]?"


    April 21, 2013
    The 'I' Word
    Henry Percy

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/the_i_word.html

    And some, actually many, here are unconcerned about the Iranians getting nuclear weapons.

    These kids wanted to die. They knew they were going to die. They didn't care. They went ahead anyway. Multiply the power of their bombs by few kilotons and and keep your thoughts on the miracle of being alive, once.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The boys at the Alamo knew they were going to die, they persisted in their insurgency, regardless.

      That their descendents would have access to nuclear weapons means tens of thousands could die.

      Oh, wait, their descendents already have killed hundreds of thousands with nuclear weapons, keep your thought of miracles alive.

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    2. That is just really really stupid, as usual.

      We used nuclear weapons to finally end a war we did not start.

      And I agree with the argument that the use of those weapons saved many American and Japanese lives which would have been lost invading Japan.

      Delete
    3. The Japanese would have lost more people by being invaded than were lost in the nuclear bombings.

      This is to say nothing of the American and other lives saved by that action.

      Delete
    4. You are the self proclaimed 'Military Expert', yet you seem to have trouble recognizing the argument that the nuclear bombings saved more lives in the long run than were killed by the bombings.

      Delete
    5. The Japanese would tell a different tale of just who started WWII.

      But the first point, the invasion of Japan was not required.
      The island could have been blockaded, cut off from its lifeline to mainland China and Korea.
      Its' armies dispirited and dispersed. Easy picking for Russian and Chinese troops.

      As to who started WWII, that story goes back to 1848 and the US forcingits foreign policy upon Japan.

      With the end of the war in 1848, Perry moved through various shore assignments before being returned to Mississippi in 1852, with orders to prepare for a voyage to the Far East. Instructed to negotiate a treaty with Japan, then closed to foreigners, Perry was to seek an agreement which would open at least one Japanese port to trade and would secure the protection of American seamen and property in that country. Departing Norfolk in November 1852, Perry assembled his squadron at Napa in May 1853.

      Sailing north with Mississippi, the steam frigate USS Susquehanna, and the sloops-of-war USS Plymouth and Saratoga, Perry reached Edo, Japan on July 8. Met by Japanese officials, Perry was ordered to sail for Nagasaki where the Dutch had a small trading post. Refusing, he demanded permission to present a letter from President Millard Fillmore and threatened to use force if denied. Unable to resist Perry's modern weaponry, the Japanese permitted him to land on the 14th to present his letter. This done, he promised the Japanese that he would return for a response.

      Returning the following February with a larger squadron, Perry was warmly received by Japanese officials who had acquiesced and prepared a treaty that fulfilled many of Fillmore's demands. Signed on March 31, 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa ensured the protection of American property and opened the ports of Hakodate and Shimoda to trade.



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    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    7. Being forced upon the international stage, by the US, Japan began a period of rapid industrialization.

      The Japanese were soon at war in China and Russia, in search of raw materials to fuel that industrialization.

      In 1898 the US annexed Hawaii, projecting its naval power into Pearl Harbor and the Pacific on a permanent basis.

      In 1905 the US signed off on Japanese occupation of Koera and Manchuria, China.

      In 1907 Teddy Roosevelt sent the Great White Fleet to the Pacific to solidify US power projection into Asia

      By 1940 the US had a large Pacific fleet and the US was unsettled by the conditions imposed by the Japanese occupation of China. Reference Nanking if you're a mind. The US was providing a private air force to fight the Japanese in China. This was direct US aggression against Japanese interests, prior to their raid on Pearl Harbor or the invasion of the Philippines.

      FDR was threatening furthr eeconomic sanctions against Japan, to accompany the covert military operations it was conducting. The Japanese then acted preemptively, using the current 21st century US and Israeli standard, raiding Pearl Harbor and invading the Philippines in acts of forward defense against the anticipation of further US aggression towards Japanese interests in Asia.


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    8. Lots of ways to tell the story, but the Flying Tigers makes it the Japanese that were the folks fighting the defensive war.

      From the Japanese point of view. They thought they were being forced to act by US aggression against them, in China and the economic threats FDR was issuing.

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    9. By 1940 the US had almost a 100 year history of attempting to dominate Japan with military force.

      It was not the Japanese Navy that had steamed into San Fransisco or Long Beach, forcing US to do business with them.

      Delete
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