Pathetic Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Idiotstan) Attacks GOP as 'Islamophobic'

At Gateway Pundit, "Here We Go… Sen. Feinstein Accuses GOP Rep. Peter King of Islamophobia After Boston Bombings (Video)."

Also at iOWNTHEWORLD, "Congressman Peter King: Stop Being ‘Politically Correct’."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

More at Reaganite's, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Jill Stanek's, "Stanek Sunday funnies 4-21-13."

Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies." And Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Obama’s Cube."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Jessika Jinx Rule 5

Well, some babe blogging is overdue.

Here's Ms. Jinx on Twitter.

Now, from some of our babe blogging friends.

At Laughing Conservative, "Emily Ratajkowski." And Subject to Change, "In the Kitchen."

Now at Proof Positive, "San Francisco Season Opener Against Green Bay Packers Set for Sept. 8," and "Friday Night Babe - Lena Headey!"

Also at Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 Saturday - Amanda Ammann." (That was last Saturday --- expect updates from the hots at TCOTs!)

More at Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart ... Sarah Stephens."

And at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is an awesome home garden providing locally grown veggies in order to reduce Mankind’s carbon footprint (instead of just being a way to grow your own superfresh veggies), you might just be a Warmist."

Also at Pirate's, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup.

And at Guns and Bikinis, "Today's Hot Babes."

At Woodsterman's,"Advice to an Old Guy ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

Plus, at Daley Gator, "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Sunny Reichert."

More Rule 5 blogging later ... send me your links and I'll update!

Runners at London Marathon Hold 30-Second Silence for Victims of Boston Marathon Bombing

At the Guardian UK, "London Marathon observes silence for Boston bomb victims – video."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "'It was never an option not to be here': Prince Harry praises London Marathon runners and brave Boston bomb victims as tens of thousands hit the streets to enjoy spectacular race in spring sun."

More video, "UK Marathon crowds undaunted by Boston bombings," and "London Marathon runners show support for Boston."

Miranda Rights for the Boston Bombing Suspect

I think it's a no brainer that the suspect should be Mirandized and tried in civilian courts. Sure, he's a terrorist, but he's also an American citizen who was captured by domestic law enforcement. Save the military tribunals for enemy combatants. The New York Times has the background, "Legal Questions Riddle Boston Case." And Glenn Greenwald, "What rights should Dzhokhar Tsarnaev get and why does it matter?"

I can't speak for Robert Stacy McCain, although he cracks me up, as usual:

I once more quote eminent law enforcement authority, Inspector Harry Callahan, SFPD: "Well, I'm all broken up over that man's rights."

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 20, 2013

Via Bob Belvedere, "Boston Terrorist Attack Aftermath: Best Tweets."

The Climate Circus Leaves Town

From Steven Hayward, at the Weekly Standard:

If you had told environmentalists on Election Day 2008 that four years later there’d be no successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, that a Democratic Congress would not have enacted any meaningful climate legislation, that domestic oil production would be soaring even after a catastrophic offshore oil spill, and that the environmental community would be having a lively internal debate about whether it should support reviving nuclear power, most might have marched into the ocean to drown themselves. Yet that’s the state of play four months into President Obama’s second term...

Continue reading.

And see Fred Barnes as well, "Obama's Agenda Is Collapsing."

I guess that's why he was getting so angry out at the Rose Garden the other day. Some big temper tantrums from Baracky, and it's still early!

10 Depressing, Morally Confused Reactions to 4/15/13, the Boston Jihad

From David Swindle, at Pajamas Media:

I would like to primarily address those who have not yet given up progressivism, moral relativism, and the Democratic party — the three idols I grew up worshiping for the first two decades of my life. (I realize now that the reason I abandoned progressivism is simply that I didn’t go to graduate school whereas most of my friends did. My brainwashing gradually wore off after I got out into the real world and had to try and survive.)

This is not an oppressive, Corporate Imperial war waged against harmless Muslims. It is a war that Islam has declared against Enlightenment-based societies. The problem is not the Koran or Islam. The problem is radical (as in going to the root of the idea) Islam or Islamism, or Orthodox Islam, or the traditional Islam of history that requires the marriage of mosque and state accompanied by full implementation of chop-your-hands-off-style Sharia. Muslims who reject Koranic literalism and affirm Enlightenment philosophy are A-OK. (See Robert Spencer’s article this morning to see the great Jazz music some of them have made. And note Roger L. Simon today — Islam is not a race.) Muslims who embrace America instead of demanding American submission can enjoy the riches of Liberty just as every immigrant who has come to this land throughout the centuries to worship their God and work hard.

We need to stand with genuine Muslim liberals against both the terrorists and stealth (non-violent) jihadists rebelling against the Modern world.

That requires identifying those in the political and media classes who sabotage these efforts. Here are 10 examples of those whose ideas undermine the safety of Americans and the twin projects to nurture political liberalism in the Muslim mind and Enlightenment values in the Islamic soul.

Continue reading.

The radioactive waste that is the lineup at MSNBC makes an excellent showing.

'The media scrubbing of the motive in the jihadi attack in Boston is breathtaking...'

Yeah, even the Wall Street Journal is succumbing to this perversion. See, "Focus Turns to Hunt for Bombing Motive."

But see Pamela at Atlas Shrugs, "DEAD JIHADIST IN BOSTON BOMBING: “I DON’T LIKE AMERICA BECAUSE THEY SHOULDN’T BE IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES’’ “I WILL DEDICATE MY LIFE TO JIHAD’’":

The media scrubbing of the motive in the jihadi attack in Boston is breathtaking. Mothers, babies, families blown to bits -- 200 victimss. When did the enemedia lose their souls? When did precious human life become an inconvenient consequence to their narrative?

The media scrubbing of the motive in the jihadi attack in Boston is breathtaking. Mothers, babies, families blown to bits -- 200 victimss. When did the enemedia lose their souls? When did precious human life become an inconvenient consequence to their narrative?

Continue reading.

Jihad Will Not Be Wished Away

"But willful blindness remains the order of the day," via Andrew McCarthy, at National Review:

We are in a war driven by ideology. “Violent extremism,” which is the label the government and the commentariat prefer to put on our enemies, is not an ideology — it is the brutality that radical ideologies yield. Our enemies’ ideology is Islamic supremacism. To challenge and defeat an ideological movement, you have to understand and confront their vision of the world. Imposing your own assumptions and biases will not do. Islamic supremacists do not see a world of Westphalian nation-states. They do not distinguish between Russia and America the way they distinguish between Muslims and non-Muslims. Their ideology frames matters as Dar al-Islam versus Dar al-Harb: the realm of Islam in a fight to the death against the realm of war — which is everyone and everyplace else.

The fact that you think this is nuts, or that I’m nuts for saying it out loud, has nothing to do with whether they believe it. They do — and they don’t care, even a little, what you think.

You do not defeat an ideology by hoping it will change or disappear. You have to challenge it, to make it defend its baleful tenets in the light of day. You cannot protect yourself from its violent outbursts absent understanding its teaching, reluctantly accepting that its teaching will inevitably lead some Muslims to strike out savagely, and committing to a pro-active, intelligence-based counterterrorism strategy — one that scraps political correctness and ferrets out the jihadists before they strike.

Continue reading.

The Left's Terrible News Week

Boy, from the Gosnell trial to the Boston bombers, it's hard out there for a progressive.

Mark Steyn captured the left's turmoil and confusion, at National Review, "The 'Co-exist' Bombers."

And I love this tweet from the editor of AlterNet, via William Jacobson:

Wow MSNBC is trying really hard to make this into an intl terror network story STOP IT.

— Tana Ganeva (@TanaGaneva) April 19, 2013

Tamerlan Tzarnaev's Wife 'Had to Start Wearing a Hijab...'

From Jake Tapper's interview with NPR's Laura Sullivan:

And at the NPR website, "Older Suspect Described As Controlling, Manipulative."

Shocker! Los Angeles Times Reports: Boston Suspect Followed 'Radical Islam'

Amazing.

After a day of searching for the motives of Tsarnaev terrorists, the Los Angeles Times caves to reality, "FBI: Slain Boston suspect followed 'radical' Islam":

Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was identified by a foreign government as a "follower of radical Islam and a strong believer" whose personality had changed drastically in just a year, according to the FBI.

As investigators considered possible motives for Monday's fatal bombings, U.S. authorities acknowledged that an unnamed government had contacted the FBI to say the 26-year-old ethnic Chechen “had changed drastically” since 2010 and was preparing to leave the United States “to join unspecified underground groups,” according to an official statement from the FBI.

U.S. officials have not named the foreign nation, but it is presumed to be Russia. Tsarnaev traveled there in 2012 and stayed for six months.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, came to the U.S. from Russia about a decade ago as ethnic Chechen refugees and were granted asylum, law enforcement sources have said. Tamerlan, who was killed in a gun battle with police early Friday morning Boston time, was a legal permanent U.S. resident. Dzhokhar, who became a citizen Sept. 11, 2012, was captured after a Friday night shootout with police and remains hospitalized in serious condition. He has not yet been charged.

According to the FBI, the foreign government had requested information on the older brother, and the agency responded by checking U.S. government databases for information on “derogatory” telephone communications, online promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history. The FBI also interviewed the suspect and family members and found no terrorism activity, the agency said.

“The FBI requested but did not receive more specific or additional information from the foreign government,” the statement read.

The disclosure comes as some U.S. lawmakers are urging that the surviving suspect be treated as a foreign combatant, and not simply a criminal suspect.

Family members and acquaintances have painted starkly contrasting portraits of the suspects. Classmates and others have described the younger brother as pleasant, but the older brother as intense and given to occasional outbursts.

At the Cambridge mosque near where the bombing suspects lived, two worshipers who showed up for Saturday’s prayer service recalled seeing both men.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was thrown out of the mosque -- the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center -- about three months ago, after he stood up and shouted at the imam during a Friday prayer service, they said. The imam had held up slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as an example of a man to emulate, recalled one worshiper who would give his name only as Muhammad.

Enraged, Tamerlan stood up and began shouting, Muhammad said.

“You cannot mention this guy because he’s not a Muslim!” Muhammad recalled Tamerlan shouting, shocking others in attendance.

“He’s crazy to me,” Muhammad said. “He had an anger inside.… I can’t explain what was in his mind.”

Tamerlan was then kicked out of the prayer service for his outburst, Muhammad recalled. “You can’t do that,” Muhammad said of shouting at the imam.

RELATED: At the Boston Herald, "FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev after 2011 tip."

ADDED: At Telegraph UK, "Boston marathon bombs: Tamerlan Tsarnaev 'interviewed by FBI in 2011'." And the Times of Israel, "Russia asked FBI to question Boston suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011."

Plus, at Lonely Conservative, "If Tsarnaev Was Known to the FBI, Why Did It Take So Long to ID Him?"

PHOTO CREDIT: Atlas Shrugs.

Sickening Leftists Claim 'We Know Absolutely Nothing About What Motivated' Boston Bombing Suspects

Readers may have noticed that I don't go in for the whole speculation game very much. I'd prefer to let the big stories sort themselves out, as the fact become known, before laying out my own grand theories about causes and ideological complicity. I'll tell you, though, since the photos of the suspects were released on Tuesday, along with the information of the crude pressure-cooker bomb that was used in the slaughter, I was certain that the suspects would turn out to be home-grown terrorists influenced by Islamic militants in the Middle East, with most likely affiliations to the global al Qaeda network. And that seems to be the case. As more information comes to light, it's becoming increasingly clear that the Tsarnaev brothers were driven to hatred of Americans through Islamic doctrines calling for jihad warfare against unbelievers.

From this morning's Wall Street Journal, "Boston Attack Renews Fears About Homegrown Terrorism: Threat Evolves From Complex International Plots to Small-Scale Attacks by Individuals Within U.S." According to the story, much remains unknown, although here's some key details:

The brothers spent 10 years in the U.S. during a formative period of their lives, exhibiting normal behavior for first-generation immigrants, said Mitchell Silber, a former intelligence official in the New York Police Department. "The question is, what catalyzed the change? Was it Chechen nationalism? Did it start with Chechen nationalism and somehow migrate to a pan-Islamist jihad cause?"

A YouTube page that appeared to belong to the elder Mr. Tsarnaev featured multiple jihadi videos that he had endorsed in the past six months. One video features the preaching of Abd al-Hamid al-Juhani, who was an assistant to an al Qaeda scholar in Chechnya, and another features Feiz Mohammad, an extremist Salafi Lebanese preacher based in Australia. Four months ago, he also "liked" a well-produced video featuring the black flags of Khorasan, a significant jihadist theme.

Mr. Silber, now with the investigative firm K2 Intelligence, said the Boston bombings show that the terrorist threat persisted even in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden. "This more pedestrian, bare-bones terrorism is out there, and it's going to be very difficult to detect."

And further:

A wild card in the bombing is the possible role of the Chechen separatist cause, which flared after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 only to be crushed by the Kremlin. Olga Oliker, an international security specialist at the Rand Corp. think tank, said that the Chechen separatist leadership has become radicalized and more recently formed an umbrella radical group, the Caucuses Emirate, which was designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization in 2011.

The leadership, however, tends not to direct overseas operations. Ms. Oliker said it is more likely the two brothers were sympathizers who decided to take action in the U.S.

Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, said Chechen influence in the global jihad shouldn't be discounted. He noted two recent rounds of arrests in Europe that involved Chechens allegedly carrying out plots at the direction of al Qaeda.

Certainly more on the elder Tsarnaev's ties to Chechnya will be unraveled, although his radicalization spiked after he returned from his recent trip to the homeland. Robert Spencer has more on that, "Boston Marathon jihad murderers may have trained in Chechen Islamic school."

Either way, enough is known now. The Tsarnaevs were jihad terrorists, plain and simple. There is no denying it, although such efforts at denial are shamelessly underway by Islamic jihad's apologists on the anti-American left. See Atlas Shrugs, for example, "ELSPETH REEVE AT ATLANTIC WIRE CARRIES WATER FOR SLAUGHTERERS: 'THE U.S. ANTI-MUSLIM CROWD IS QUITE PLEASED WITH ITSELF'."

And here's the sickening spin from far-left extremist Paul Waldman, at the American Prospect, "Substituting Identity for Motivation":

Let's be honest and admit that everyone had a hope about who the Boston bomber would out to be. Conservatives hoped it would be some swarthy Middle Easterner, which would validate their belief that the existential threat from Islam is ongoing and that their preferred policies are the best way to deal with that threat. Liberals hoped it would be a Timothy McVeigh-like character, some radical right-winger or white supremacist, which would perhaps make us all think more broadly about terrorism and what the threats really are. The truth turned out to be … well, we don't really know yet. Assuming these two brothers are indeed the bombers, they're literally Caucasian, but they're also Muslim. Most importantly, as of yet we know absolutely nothing about what motivated them. Nothing. Keep that in mind.

That is so much bullshit it boggles the mind.

"Assuming these brothers are the bombers"?

Right. The entire country is horribly torn over making any assumptions about these two.

And what's this about "we know absolutely nothing about them"? Is it even possible to issue a more bald-faced lie?

Of course not. But it's not just the marquee America-hating leftists at the American Prospect. All across the mainstream media today we have the shameful spectacle of the press moaning about how officials are "struggling" to determine the motives of the bombers. Here's the banner headline right now at the New York Times, "Bomb Investigation Shifts to a New Mystery: Motive." And this just in at the Chicago Tribune, "Boston Marathon bombing investigation turns to motive." And at the Los Angeles Times, "Search for motive in Boston attack begins." Here's Reuters, "Boston Marathon bombing investigation turns to motive."

And on and on...

It's disgusting.

I'll have more on the left's complicity in Islam's jihad against America.

Meanwhile, David Horowitz provides some moral clarity:

Watching the news about the Boston bombing and the Muslim fanatics who perpetrated the deed, I cannot help reflect on all the nasty attacks that liberals and progressives and Muslim activists have conducted against conservatives who have attempted to warn Americans that their enemies are religious fanatics driven by an apocalyptic hatred of us because we are Jews, Christians, atheists, democrats – in a word, infidels.

It has been said by Nancy Pelosi, George Soros and other Democrats that George Bush created the terrorists by attempting to enforce a UN Security council resolution and take down one of the monsters of the 20th Century in Iraq. It has been said by the late Susan Sontag and other progressive intellectuals that the heinous attacks of 9/11 were the result of American policies. The Center for American Progress and university administrators have relentlessly defamed as Islamphobes and bigots those of us who have had the temerity to talk about the Islamic roots of Islamic terror. If only we ignored the Islamic beliefs behind the terrorism and made nice to all Muslims indiscriminately, the terrorists wouldn’t hate us.

Boston has exposed this as the Big Lie and fatuous delusion that it has always been. The Boston killers were treated better in America than all but an elite among Americans born here who love their country. They were given scholarships, they were admitted to the most exclusive prep schools, they lived in a Cambridge environment where critics of Islamic terror were regarded as Islamophobes and they as a minority deserving special consideration and concern. And yet they hated us. They hated America and ordinary Americans like the victims of their mayhem, and enlisted in the army of our mortal enemies. They hated us because they were fanatical believers in the idea that Mohammed had desired them to kill infidels and purify the earth for Allah. This is the face of our enemy and the sooner the delusional liberals among us wake up to this fact, the safer all of us will be.

#Boston Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Custody

At the Boston Globe, "Bombing suspect in custody after standoff in Watertown," and "Residents cheer capture of Marathon bombing suspect."

More later. Obama just finished speaking. He actually used the word "terrorists." Things are looking up.

PHOTO CREDIT: Selena Zito.

Assploding Leftists Now Denounce Speculation on 'Demography' and 'Motivation' of Boston Terrorists

This would be hilarious if the surrounding events weren't so devastating, although you can't say it wasn't unexpected.

Leftists truly are the scum of political life.

At Twitchy, "Backpedal-palooza: Left no longer wants to speculate about bombers’ motives."

Our reaction to terrorism shouldnt be predicated on the demography of the terrorists. Sad that bigotry apparently obscures this simple truth
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) April 19, 2013

While media is trying not to assert motive, you'll notice that nobody on TV is making ANY effort to respect a basic presumption of innocence
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) April 19, 2013

If your reaction to today is excitement or partisan glee, you've lost your soul. The events of today & the past few days have been very sad.
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) April 19, 2013

More, "Left no longer blaming right-wingers for Monday’s bombing."

Assploding hypocrisy.

The freaks.

GRAPHIC: Tamerlan Tsarnaev DEAD BODY PHOTOGRAPH

The photo's alleged to be that of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. See International Business Times, "Tamerlan Tsarnaev Death Photo Surfaces: Autopsy Picture On Reddit Of Slain Boston Bombing Suspect No. 1."

GRAPHIC: Here's the gruesome photo of a dead body alleged to be Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect #1,Tamerlan Tsarnaev twitter.com/MentalityMag/s…

— Mentality Magazine (@MentalityMag) April 19, 2013

Jihad in America!

I'm astounded by how much content Pamela's able to post over at Atlas Shrugs, but no matter: This is vital reporting.

See: "BOSTON IS A WAR ZONE: JIHAD IN AMERICA," and "PAMELA GELLER, BREITBART: THE JIHAD COMES TO BOSTON."

Below are SWAT team members in Watertown:

More:

* "ENEMEDIA: NEW YORK TIMES SYMPATHIZES WITH BOSTON JIHAD BOMBERS."

* "CHECHEN LEADER: "'THEY GREW UP IN THE US, THEIR VIEWS AND BELIEFS WERE FORMED THERE. THE ROOTS OF EVIL MUST BE SEARCHED FOR IN AMERICA'."

* "BOSTON JIHAD BOMBER AFTER BOMBINGS: 'I'M A STRESS-FREE KIND OF GUY'."

* "BOSTON JIHAD BOMBER COULD HAVE BEEN DEPORTED AFTER 2009 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CONVICTION."

* "AUNT OF BOSTON JIHAD BOMBERS SAYS THEY'RE BEING FRAMED."

* "MOVING IN FOR THE KILL."

Break Time From #Boston Blogging

With Michelle Fields on Twitter:

@celiabigelow is teaching me how to shoot right now: twitter.com/MichelleFields…

— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) April 19, 2013

Dragnet Turns Boston Into Ghost Town

At Althouse, "Creepy Boston lockdown."

Friday afternoon rush hour, downtown Boston twitter.com/tobyharnden/st…

— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) April 19, 2013

Massive Police Operation Underway in #Boston

At the Washington Post, "Boston locked down for massive manhunt; one bombing suspect killed, the other at large."

And at the Boston Globe, "Search for Marathon bombing suspect locks down Watertown, surrounding communities":

WATERTOWN — With nearly a million residents of the Boston area hunkering down behind locked doors, heavily armed police are making their way through a 20-block area of this community, searching for one of the suspects in the deadly Boston Marathon terror bombings.

The search for Dzhokhor A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge comes after a chaotic, violent night in which a second suspect died in a firefight with police, and one police officer was killed and another was seriously wounded.

Colonel Timothy Alben, head of the State Police, said in a news conference shortly after 12:30 p.m. that there had been “no apprehension at this point,” but said the situation was changing moment by moment.

Local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, including the Secret Service, are undertaking a door-to-door search of the area in Watertown. K-9 teams, explosives experts, and SWAT officers are involved, said State Police spokesman David Procopio. Alben said the search was about 60 percent complete.

Continue reading.

And here's the banner headline at the New York Times, "Dragnet for One Man Paralyzes Boston: Officer and a Suspect Are Dead as 2nd Eludes Capture."

And  we've got derps all over Twitter moaning about how horrible is this lockdown? Folks should chill and let law enforcement do its job. It won't be too long. They'll get this motherf-ker in due time.

More at Memeorandum.

Tom Boggioni Keeps F-king That Saudi Chicken

Here's the epic idiot Tom Boggioni, a.k.a. TBogg, performing self-douche on Twitter earlier this week:

@atlasshrugs Keep fucking that Saudi chicken, Pam
— TBogg (@tbogg) April 16, 2013

So self-douche TBogg, in attempting to smear Pamela Geller, self-douches himself --- again. The asshole's one of the biggest douchebag losers on the Internet --- an impressive feat, given the left's deep bench of losers.

Here's Pamela's post on the Chechen-Saudi connection to the Boston Marathon bombing, "BOSTON JIHADI BOMBERS MEMBERS OF WAHHABI CELL FUNDED BY SAUDI AL QAEDA":

Two Chechen brothers from Dagestan, members of a Wahhabi cell funded by Saudi al Qaeda, were identified as the terrorists who detonated two bombs at the Boston Marathon last Monday and carried out a bombing-shooting spree at the MIT campus in Waterton outside Boston, Friday, April 19, in which a police officer was killed in a fiery firefight.

The media is criminally silent on this. Instead they are talking about what a "good, sweet boy" he is. Abominable...

Pamela links to the DEBKAfile, "Two Dagestani brothers nembers of Chechen Wahhabi cell identified as responsible for Boston terror."

And at the Alabama Media Group, "Former Montgomery professor and Russian expert warns of 'Afghanization' of Chechnya, homeland of Boston bombing suspects":

The breakaway state of Chechnya, the homeland of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, has become an under-the radar breeding ground for Islamic insurgents trained for years in the country's on-going battle against Russia.

Dr. Stephen Blank, research professor of National Security Affairs for the Strategic Studies Institute, said the country has been part of the Russian federation since the 18th century and has been "perpetually rebellious."

Blank, who served as Associate Professor of Soviet Studies at the Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education at Montgomery's Maxwell Air Force Base from 1986-89, said the Chechen rebellion has been all but crushed by the brutal Russian regime, forcing the insurgency to spread to the surrounding area and among Chechens living in other countries.

The entire country of some 1.3 million people is Muslim, Blank said, though there are different forms of Islam in the country. Most Chechens adhere to Sunni Islam but the insurgents follow Salafi Islam, a branch that traces its origins back to Saudi Arabia and has been linked to al Qaeda....

"(The Chechen situation) is everything it is blamed of being: a part of the global jihad, and a terrorist incubator on Europe's borders."

I'll have more information on all these connections later.

But if early reports hold up, you can be sure that TBogg will keep f-king that Saudi chicken.

The dick. A big fat loser dick. Just like the Tsarnaev brothers.

Uncle Denounces Boston Bombing Suspects as 'Losers'

I've just been following everything on Twitter. You can't find more up-to-the-minute reporting. Amazing.

In any case, there's not a lot of analysis and reflection at this point. Authorities are still searching for the second suspect.

Here's the uncle:

And see NBC News, "One Boston Marathon suspect killed; second suspect, his brother, on loose after firefight" (via Memeorandum). And Jihad Watch, "Boston jihad bomber's father threatens "all hell will break loose" if son dies."

I'll have lots more throughout the day.

Added: At the Boston Herald, "Breaking: SWAT teams still on hunt for bomber, uncle begs `turn yourself in!’"

The Long, Sorry Tale of the Idiot Democrats' Failed Gun-Grabbing Debacle

The shills at the New York Times have been trying all day to place the blame for the failure of gun control everywhere else but where it belongs: on the president and his idiot enablers in Congress and the collectivist mass media.

Here's this morning's pathetic piece by Jennifer Steinhauser spinning the lame "no-real-chance-for-gun-control" meme, "Gun Control Effort Had No Real Chance, Despite Pleas."

Actually, it's not so tragic. Obama stupidly overplayed his Newtown hand and for his efforts he's being rewarded with the biggest political defeat of his presidency, the arrogant knucklehead. See Politico's analysis: "Gun control: President Obama’s biggest loss." The Democrats thought that 20 dead children would be plenty enough to put them over the top for their long-cherished gun confiscation designs --- and came out the worse for it, the losers.

Oh, so sad! Behold the poor crestfallen correspondents of the leftist media complex. It's now officially a period of gun-safety mourning, a WTF political moment if there ever was one.

Ms. Steinhauser piles on with another teary report at the Old Gray Gasbag, "For Gun Bill Born in Tragedy, a Tangled Path to Defeat":

WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona was in an empty hallway in the Capitol on Tuesday when he bumped into Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic member of Congress from his home state who was critically wounded in a mass shooting. Both froze in anticipation of the painful minute about to unfold.

Ms. Giffords, who had been fiercely promoting a background check bill for gun buyers, knew that Mr. Flake, a Republican and an old friend, had announced on his Facebook page the night before that he would not support the bill. So Ms. Giffords, who still struggles to speak because of the damage that a bullet did to her brain, grabbed Mr. Flake’s arm and tried — furiously and with difficulty — to say that she had needed his vote. The best she could get out was the word “need.”

Mr. Flake looked at the ground. “I said I was sorry,” Mr. Flake recalled Thursday, looking despondent. “I didn’t know what else to say. It’s very hard.”

In the end, Mr. Flake’s rebuff of Ms. Giffords and his decision to vote with many of his Senate colleagues against the gun measure helped doom a search among a small group of Republicans and Democrats to find consensus around gun regulations. Their efforts were largely trounced by the intense lobbying of gun rights groups, which declined to support a modest initiative to expand criminal background checks for gun buyers.

But the roots of the defeat can be traced to a variety of other factors: timing, convoluted Senate rules that allow minority opponents great influence, and an ultimately counterproductive alliance between Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, which inadvertently helped the groundwork for the opposition. The failure of the bill was complete on Thursday as Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, said lawmakers would move on to other issues and take “a pause” in the gun control fight...

Oh boo freakin' hoo. Hand these people some tissues for crying out loud.

More at National Journal, with a picture of an emotionally defeated Neil Heslin, the father of Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis, "How Obama Misread the Politics of Gun Control."

Plus, will someone please drive a stake into this beast? At the Weekly Standard, "Biden: 'The President Is Already Lining Up Some Additional Executive Actions' for Guns" (at Memeorandum).

Wanted: FBI Releases Video of Two Suspects in Boston Bombing

At the Boston Globe, "Authorities have clear video images of two suspects in Boston Marathon bombings, official says":

The FBI today released photos and video of two suspects in the deadly Boston Marathon terror bombings case, appealing to the public to help law enforcement officials find them.

“Somebody out there knows these individuals,” said Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office. He said the two men are considered “armed and dangerous.”

DesLauriers described the two men as Suspect No. 1 and Suspect No. 2. Suspect No. 1 was wearing a dark hat. Suspect No. 2 was wearing a white hat.

DesLauriers said Suspect No. 2 was observed planting a bomb, leaving it in place shortly before it went off.

“Within minutes,” he said at a news conference at a Boston hotel.

Asked if he knew where the suspects went, he said Suspect No. 2 had gone west on Boylston Street after planting the bomb. It wasn’t known where the other suspect went, he said.

He said, “As you can see, the quality of the photographs is quite good, but we will continue to work on developing additional images.” The officials said the images would be distributed to the media and posted on the FBI’s website. Video of the two men was also posted to Youtube.

The FBI asked people with photos, videos, and other information to e-mail them to boston@ic.fbi.gov. It also said people can call 1-800-CALL-FBI, prompt #3, to leave tips.

DesLauriers said investigators were particularly interested in interviewing witnesses who were in front of the Forum restaurant, site of one of the blasts.

More at the link.

And at Memeorandum.

Americans Reveal the Secret to Defeating Terrorism

At the Ottawa Citizen, "No surrender to fear":

If there’s anything positive to extract from the Boston Marathon bombings, it’s the response. Certainly there was shock. That is to be expected. What cannot always be expected is a refusal to succumb to that shock. But that is what we saw in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, and because of that response we can extract a not unreasonable confidence that terrorism need not prevail against civilized order.

We’ve seen similar responses to other attacks, of course. Everyone remembers the firefighters and police officers who rushed into the soon-to-collapse World Trade Center towers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The 2005 bombings on the London Underground saw ordinary citizens behave with courage and self-sacrifice amid the devastation.

Being scared is an understandable response when terrorists strike. The nature of the attacks shatters our normal assumptions about the security of our daily lives. But an overwhelmingly fear-ridden response is exactly what terrorists want. The fundamental purpose of terrorism is of course to create fear in the public mind. When people refuse to surrender to fear, the terrorists fail.

The terrorists who struck Boston failed. People were scared, yes, but most it seems acted with resolve and resilience.

RTWT.

VIDEO CREDIT: My Pet Jawa, "National Guard Heros Helped Save Lives."

'Emotionally, it is very hard for me to consider such ilk as fellow Americans, let alone as decent human beings...'

That's from Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "David Sirota of Salon on Boston Bomber: I SEE WHITE MEN!!!"

And I must admit, it's very hard for my to consider Walter James Casper III a fellow American, let alone a decent human being, for retweeting Sirota's despicable screed:

Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American salon.com/2013/04/16/let… via @salon

— J. Casper (@repsac3) April 17, 2013

BONUS: Don't miss James Taranto, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Privilege of Not Belonging: A theory of white racism against whites":

There have been plenty of nonwhite mass murderers -- among them Long Island Rail Road shooter Colin Ferguson (black), Beltway snipers John Muhammad and Lee Malvo (black and Muslim), Wisconsin mass shooter Chai Soua Vang (Laotian) and Virginia Tech's Seung-Hui Cho (Korean). None were treated as anything other than lone wolves, and it's been decades since America bombed either Laos or Korea.

It's true that Muslim terrorists are often "portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats," but only because that portrayal is accurate. And many important media and other cultural voices go out of their way to argue that not all Muslims are terrorists (which is to their credit) and to play down Islamic terrorists' religious and ideological motives (which is not).

The Sirota piece isn't really worthy of the foregoing rebuttal, but we were drawn to it as a psychological case study. As you can see from the accompanying photo, the guy David Sirota was hoping the bomber would turn out to be bears a striking resemblance to David Sirota. What leads a white person to be prejudiced against "his own kind"?

The answer is white privilege: a phenomenon of which Sirota turns out to be less a serious critic than a poster boy.

No doubt.

A poster boy of white privilege and racism, like Walter James Casper III.

'Shame on You!' Shouted After Democrat Gun Grabbing Bill Goes Down in Flames

Sheesh.

Everybody's shouting: "Shame on You!"

Obama was shaming opponents after the bill's defeat yesterday, and protesters heckled the chamber, shouting "Shame on You!"

I say shame on the Democrats. They staked enormous political capital on their gun grabbing agenda and it went down ignominiously --- a huge loss, well deserved.

More at the Wall Street Journal, "Senate Scuttles Gun Limits: Expanded Background Checks Fail; Obama Denounces 'Shameful Day for Washington'":

WASHINGTON—The biggest push in nearly two decades to restrict firearms in the U.S., touched off by the emotional response to December's mass shooting of schoolchildren, collapsed in the Senate on Wednesday, scuttling a major element of President Barack Obama's second-term agenda.

The centerpiece of a Democrat-led gun-control effort—a plan to expand the system of background checks aimed at detecting buyers ineligible to own guns—failed in a 54-46 vote, six votes shy of the 60 needed to advance. Shortly afterward, the Senate blocked a proposal to ban the manufacture and sale of certain semiautomatic rifles often called assault weapons and ban high-capacity ammunition magazines. It drew 40 votes, with 60 senators opposed.

Mr. Obama denounced the Senate action in the White House Rose Garden, where he was joined by victims of gun violence, including former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.), who was gravely injured in a mass shooting. "This was a pretty shameful day for Washington. But this effort is not over," the president said.

Supporters of the background-check measure had hoped the co-sponsorship of Sen. Pat Toomey, a conservative Republican from Pennsylvania, would draw in his party colleagues. But only four GOP senators joined 50 of the Senate's 55 Democrats and independents in support.

Wednesday's votes showed that little has changed in the politics of gun control in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, which left 20 children and six adult staff members dead at an elementary school, as well as the attacker's mother. Support for tighter laws is strong among most Democrats, but Republicans and those Democrats from GOP-leaning states proved reluctant to vote to tighten access to firearms.

The Senate isn't expected to take a final vote on its package of gun-control legislation, in essence leaving the issue tabled. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) took a procedural step Wednesday that would enable lawmakers to return to the bill if dynamics changed.

But that prospect seemed unlikely, and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is unlikely to initiate any gun-control legislation in the absence of a Senate-passed bill.

More at the link.

Promotional Tour for 'Iron Man 3'

I love this franchise:

The Media's Leftist Priorities

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Breaking media silence: Media bias exists not only in how they cover stories, but in their choice of stories to cover":

It was fine to dwell at length on the Newtown, Conn., shootings, because those could be blamed on the evil NRA. But writing about these dead innocents might be a political liability instead of a political asset. It might have been awkward for President Obama.

Yes. Awkward.

More at that link.

Misinformation and Anxiety in Boston Terrorism Investigation

From Andrew McCarthy, at PJ Media:

Misinformation rather than enlightenment has been the order of the day in the investigation of Monday’s terrorist bombing of the Boston Marathon. The anxiety stemming from the attack and the stream of inaccurate news about it is further freighted, moreover, by the FBI’s confirmation that two letters addressed to top political officials – President Obama and Senator Richard Wicker (R., MS) – tested positive for ricin, a deadly poison. As noted below, a man identified as Kenneth Curtis of Tupelo, Mississippi, has reportedly been arrested in connection with the mailings.

Early this afternoon, massive confusion was generated when mainstream media outlets first reported that an arrest had been made in the bombing case, then retracted that claim. CNN, in particular, kept insisting there had been an arrest even after other press agencies denied it. When all was said and done, though, it appeared that no suspect had even been in police custody, much less been formally charged – and that perhaps no suspect has even been identified yet.

This is a common phenomenon in the high profile investigations that follow terrorist attacks. The investigators actually working the case would rather there were no disclosures made about the status of the investigation. At this point, their work is best done in secret – or, at least, as much secrecy as is possible. Otherwise, any conspirators who may not already have fled will be alerted that it’s time to skip town, destroy evidence, and intimidate witnesses. These investigative agencies actually work for the public, however, and the public has an extraordinarily high level of interest in the progress of the case. Thus the agencies have official press agents whose job it is to keep the public reasonably informed without compromising investigative leads and tactics – not an easy job.

Then there is the most unruly and damaging dynamic in the equation: the media and its anonymous law-enforcement sources. It seems every media outlet is in a rabid competition to be first, rather than most accurate, with every breaking development. This combines toxically with the fact that sources who hide behind anonymity – precisely because they are not supposed to be running off at the mouth – have widely varying levels of knowledge about the actual goings-on in the case.

Couple this with the fact that most journalists and many agents are not well-versed in the esoterica of the justice system – in which, for example, “arrest” is different from “custody”; a “suspect” is different from a “person of interest”; and “detention” is different from “apprehension” – and you have the roadmap to error-ridden reporting.

Continue reading.

National Republicans Dump Mark Sanford

At WaPo, "National GOP abandons Mark Sanford."

Following revelations that his ex-wife accused him of trespassing on her property earlier this year, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford (R) has lost the support of his national party.

The news comes as controversy continues to swirl around Sanford and his personal life — a process that began with his well-publicized 2009 affair but was inflamed, the Washington Post has learned, when one of the Sanfords’ sons met Mark Sanford’s former mistress for the first time the night he won the GOP nomination.

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday took the unusual step of telegraphing that it will not spend money on his special election campaign.

“Mark Sanford has proven he knows what it takes to win elections. At this time, the NRCC will not be engaged in this special election,” the NRCC said in a statement, which was first reported by Politico.

The committee has spent very little on the race so far, but Sanford’s problems have put a conservative district in jeopardy for the Republicans. And the report Tuesday of the trespassing complaint seems to assure that he wouldn’t sail to victory.

Also, "Can Mark Sanford survive?", and "Sanford campaign faces wife’s accusations, GOP group’s retreat."

Scores Injured in Huge Explosion at Texas Fertilizer Plant

Some reports indicate hundreds have been injured.

Terrible news, at KWTX-TV Waco, "EMS Director Says 60 To 70 Dead In West Explosion" (via Memeorandum).

Also at Dallas Morning News, "Live video: Explosion, injuries reported at fertilizer plant near Waco in West, Texas":

A fire had broken out earlier at the fertilizer plant, and the explosion occurred while firefighters were trying to put it out.

“It was a small fire and then water got sprayed the ammonia nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb,” said Jason Shelton, a clerk at the Czech Best Western Hotel in West. “I live about a thousand feet from it and it blew my screen door off and my back windows. There’s houses leveled that were right next to it. We've got people injured and possibly dead.”

Numerous buildings were reported to be on fire, including West Middle School and a nearby nursing home. A dispatcher calling for multiple ambulances said, “We do have a lot of injured here.”

Gabby Giffords Jumps the Shark With Pathetic Gun-Grabbing Op-Ed in the New York Times

I imagine she's already jumped the shark by coming out as one of Newtown's biggest Second Amendment hypocrites, but this commentary piece really seals the deal, "A Senate in the Gun Lobby's Grip" (via Memeorandum):

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

No. Shame on you, Gabby Giffords.

It's hard to take seriously a former Member of Congress who campaigned for reelection on a Second Amendment platform who now criticizes senators who have made political decisions in tune with the policy preferences of their constituents. If the senators have done the wrong thing in voting against this ridiculous legislation they'll certainly pay for it at reelection time. And in time you too shall be repudiated in contest of public opinion, for your despicable political hypocrisy and your reprehensible exploitation of your injuries ---- and the deaths of children --- to punish law-abiding gun owners who've had nothing to do with the killing of the innocents.

More at Memeorandum.

Manchin-Toomey Fails in Senate, Obama Hardest Hit

At Hot Air, "Video: Obama not handling gun-control failure in Senate very well."

And at National Journal, "At Pivotal Point in Presidency, Obama Routed on Gun Control." (Via Memeorandum.)

Well, I hope it's a "turning point" in Obama's presidency, turning toward failure, the asshole gun-grabbing Exploiter-in-Chief.

CNN Botches Boston Bombing Investigation Reporting

See UPROXX: "Maybe We Should All Just Tune Completely Out Whenever Events Like The Boston Bombing Happen."

Possible Suspect in #BostonMarathon Bombing Identified

There was some false reporting on a suspect in custody earlier today, although sources are sill reporting that authorities have videotape with a possible ID forthcoming.

Here's the Boston Globe homepage seen earlier today:

And see, "Confusion engulfs Boston Marathon investigation as authorities find photo of suspect":

An official briefed on the Boston Marathon bombing investigation said today that authorities have an image of a suspect carrying, and perhaps dropping, a black bag at the second bombing scene on Boylston Street, outside of the Forum restaurant.

Authorities are “very close” in the investigation, said the official, who declined to be named. But law enforcement officials issued statements later in the afternoon firmly denying widespread media reports that a suspect was in custody or had been arrested.

The Globe’s source also said a surveillance camera at Lord & Taylor, located directly across the street, had provided clear video of the area, though it was unclear whether the image of the suspect was taken from that camera.

“The camera from Lord & Taylor is the best source of video so far,” confirmed Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “All I know is that they are making progress.”

Two bombs exploded within seconds of each other at 2:50 p.m. Monday near the Boylston Street finish line of the world-renowned race, killing three people and injuring 176, many of whom suffered major trauma from flying shrapnel, including nails and ball bearings that authorities have said were stuffed into the explosive devices by their makers.

A massive investigation is underway, involving local, state, and federal law enforcement. Officials have promised to go to the “ends of the earth” to find whoever is responsible.

Via Memeorandum.

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Boston bomber 'is trapped by his phone': FBI 'use phone records to identify suspect after he is spotted on store cameras talking on his cell just seconds before blast'." (Via Memeorandum.)

Unbridled Feminist Orthodoxy and the 'Snakepit of Injustice'

Yet another damning indictment of contemporary progressivism, from Judith Grossman, at the Wall Street Journal, "A Mother, a Feminist, Aghast."

Read it all.

And at FIRE, "In 'The Wall Street Journal': 'A Mother, a Feminist, Aghast'."

Harry Reid Goes for Assault Weapons Ban

Well, this is interesting, at NYT, "Background Checks in Peril as Reid Backs Gun Curbs":

WASHINGTON — As the Senate began debate on a number of gun measures on Wednesday, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, broke his long faith with the National Rifle Association and said he would vote for a ban on assault weapons.

“We must strike a better balance between the right to defend ourselves and the right of every child in America to grow up safe from gun violence,” Mr. Reid said from the Senate floor Wednesday morning.

“I’ll vote for the ban because maintaining the law and order is more important than satisfying conspiracy theorists who leave in black helicopters and false flags,” he said. “I’ll vote for the ban because saving the lives of police officers, young and old, and innocent civilians, young and old, is more important than preventing imagined tyranny,” he said.

The Senate will vote Wednesday afternoon on gun measures that may determine the shape of legislation inspired by the shootings in Newtown, Conn.

By late Tuesday night, a bipartisan amendment to the legislation, which would expand background checks for gun buyers, seemed all but doomed as two members who the measure’s sponsors had hoped would support it announced they would not.

Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, citing constitutional worries, said he would vote against it. And late Tuesday night, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said she too would reject the amendment, and threw her support behind a competing Republican measure. A handful of Democrats who were key to its passage would not commit to voting for it, and seemed increasingly likely to turn against the measure as its prospects for passage dimmed.

Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said Wednesday he was still scrambling for votes on the background check amendment that he created with Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania.

Wasn't someone recently proposing intelligence tests for government officials?

Yeah. Okay.

Put the Senate Democrats at the front of the line. These people are f-king idiots.

Climate Scaremongers Struggle to Explain Warming Slowdown

Read it all, at AoSHQ, "Global Walkback: "Scientists" Struggle to Explain Why Their Theories About Global Warming Are Failing."

Frank Shorter on Boston and Munich

A great interview.

Frank Shorter talks to Jake Tapper:

RELATED: At USA Today, Cameron Stracher, "Bomber attacks essence of Marathon -- freedom."

Margaret Thatcher Funeral

At Astute Bloggers, "RIP LADY THATCHER."

And at Telegraph UK, "Thatcher funeral: the applause came from nowhere and followed the coffin to St Paul's."

The full video is here.

And at the New York Post, "Thatcher's Fight: Freedom vs. Tyranny."

And see the awesome leader at the Economist, "Freedom fighter."

Despicable Leftist David Sirota: 'Let's hope Boston Marathon bomber is a white American...'

I'm not linking the filthy scumbag piece at Salon, but Aleister's got it at American Glob, "SHAME ON YOU SALON.COM":

This, is where I draw the line and speak up. This is the point at which I can no longer remain silent.

This is beyond bad taste, it’s the promotion of racial hatred and violence for the sake of partisanship.

Everyone, every single person who works for Salon.com should be ashamed of themselves.

Especially you, David Sirota. You are a horrible human being.

These people are the lowest of the low, the scummiest of the scum.

But I'm not surprised at all. The radical leftists are chomping at the bit to ID the perp so they can have a "national conversation" smearing conservatives for tea party terrorism. See the Other McCain, "Shorter @DylanByers: ‘Hurry Up, FBI, So We Can Start the Media Blame Game!’"

Pretty sick.

Investigators Find Circuit Board Believed Used as Detonator in Boston Marthon Bombing

At the Boston Globe, "Investigation of Boston Marathon bombings continues: Circuit board found near site of blasts."

Investigators combing through the scene of the deadly Boston Marathon terrorist attack have recovered a circuit board that they believe was used to detonate the bombs, according to an official briefed on the investigation.

Investigators have also recovered components of the bombs, enabling them to determine that they consisted of two 6-liter pressure cookers packed with nails, ball bearings, and other metal. The makeshift bombs were placed in black duffel bags, the official said.

The one that exploded first was placed on the ground on Boylston Street, across from the finish-line viewing stands where dignitaries, including Governor Deval Patrick, had been sitting earlier. The second bag was placed on the ground about 75 to 100 yards down the street, outside the Forum restaurant at 755 Boylston, according to the official.

The bombs, detonated about 12 seconds apart, killed three people and injured 176 others, including 17 who are still in critical condition. The attacks created a scene of bloody carnage near the finish line of a race that is a colorful rite of spring and draws runners from around the world, who are cheered to the finish line by happy crowds.

More at that top link, and at the Globe.

And see the Wall Street Journal, "Boston Bomb Clues Surface: Officials Believe Lethal Devices Built From Pressure Cookers; Scene Is Scrutinized."

The Case for Regime Change on Abortion

An amazing review and analysis of Kermit Gosnell and abortion rights, from James Taranto, at the Wall Street Journal, "From Roe to Gosnell":

The reductio ad absurdum of the pro-abortion side is Kermit Gosnell. That is why the Gosnell case has crystallized our view that the current regime of abortion on demand in America is a grave evil that ought to be abolished. It is murderous, if not categorically then at least in its extreme manifestations. Maintaining it requires an assault on language and logic that has taken on a totalitarian character. And it is politically poisonous.

Some pro-abortion commentators have denied that the horrors of the Women's Medical Society implicate their ideology. While they have little to say about the babies Gosnell allegedly killed, they certainly don't approve of the way he treated his pregnant patients, at least two of whom, according to the grand jury, ended up dead, with untold others mutilated or infected. No, these advocates assure us, they want abortion to be "safe and legal." (The Clintonian "rare" is not heard anymore. In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed last month, Kate Michelman of NARAL Pro-Choice America came right out and said that she wants abortion to be "common.")

But the grand jury--which described its members as covering "a spectrum of personal beliefs about the morality of abortion"--directly blamed "pro-choice" politics for the regulatory failure that allowed the clinic to remain open for decades. The Pennsylvania Department of Health had conducted occasional inspections of the clinic starting in 1979, although it failed to act on the violations it found...

'Marathon Terror'

Today's Boston Globe front-page, via BuzzFeed:

How Kirsten Powers Finally Shamed the News Media

From John Fund, at National Review, "The Media After Gosnell."

Who Tried to Suppress Pamela Geller's Speech?

At Atlas Shrugs, "Israel National News: 'Who Tried to Silence Pamela Geller?'"

Also, "NEWS 12 EXPOSES HABEEB AHMED'S ATTEMPT TO CRUSH FREE SPEECH OF PAMELA GELLER."

The Grotesque Politicization of the Boston Bombing

From Dana Loesch, at Red State:

This isn’t journalism. This is speculation. It’s hackneyed. It’s malicious, unprofessional, and dangerous. The lack of professionalism demonstrated by the above should be enough to shame them forever from the profession, but the profession now thrives on tabloid-level “reporting.”

After a tragedy the normal person responds by falling to their knees in prayer. The compassionate person responds with concern for the affected. The professional reports the facts and differentiates between speculation and confirmation.

It is the desperate and professionally and spiritually anemic who heartlessly view tragedy as a chance to settle some imaginary score. These individuals are baselessly impugning innocent groups and in doing so, inadvertently impugn themselves and their profession.

See all Dana's examples at the link.

Also, at Twitchy, "Detective Chris Matthews speculates on tax day connection to Boston bombing," and "Michael Moore puts two and two together after Boston Marathon bombing."

Progressive ghouls. Same bullshit. Different day.

More on this later...it's going to be a major part of the story, unfortunately...

Terror at the Boston Marathon

Photos, at the Big Picture.

'That much smoke and dust suggests AMFO; Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil, with a 1lb TNT kicker. Crude but effective enough in a packed crowd, especially with the ball bearings...'

From Stormbringer, at Theo Spark's, "THE BOSTON BOMBS."

Bill Iffrig, 78-Year-Old Marathoner, With Piers Morgan on CNN

The shock waves of the blast just knocked Mr. Iffrig to the ground. I'm sure many people, like me, couldn't stop watching that moment during the replays.

PREVIOUSLY: "Deadly Terrorist Attack at Boston Marathon."

Deadly Terrorist Attack at Boston Marathon

I checked Twitter between my morning and afternoon American government classes, at about 12:25pm this afternoon. I've been checking Twitter pretty much all day since then, especially after I got out of my 12:45pm class. There's no underestimating how devastating the bombs were, even though "experts" have dismissed them as "unsophisticated." Tell that to the guy below who lost both of his legs, seen at Mediaiate on video, "Live Video From Boston Explosion Shows Man With Legs Blown Off, Official Talking About Deaths."

You can't trust media reports at this point. Maybe later. The New York Post is over the top, given the level of confirmed reports, "12 dead, nearly 50 injured after 2 explosions rock Boston Marathon, law enforcement sources confirm." That's wrong, I pray.

However, the Boston Globe is outstanding, "Live blog: Explosions in Copley Square." And check the photos, "PHOTOS: TWO EXPLOSIONS AT BOSTON MARATHON FINISH LINE."

Also at the New York Times, "Blasts at Boston Marathon Kill 3 People." (At Memeorandum.)

I'll be updating...

Marxist Melissa-Harris Perry: 'Maybe We Can Make Taxes a Bit More Like Giving to Charity...'

Boy, this lady just endlessly loves her some government!

And this is why people can't stand collectivists like this. Charitable giving is a private good. People decide on their own when and how much they can help others. Patterns of per capita giving separate the U.S. as the most generous Western democracy compared to European countries. But, astonishingly, collectivists like Harris-Perry want people to feel good giving taxes, since such coerced payments to the state will go to redistributing resources in support of the progressive collectivist agenda. I'll give it to this lady, though. She does't hide her Marxist program like so many other radical left-wingers. Morally bankrupt and evil. Yes. But as least she's transparent:

White House Exploits Newtown Mom Francine Wheeler to Push Depraved Gun-Grabbing Legislation

At Twitchy, "President Prop-aganda taps Newtown mom to push ‘gun responsibility reforms’ in weekly address."

And AWD, "FRANCINE WHEELER, I’M SORRY YOUR SON WAS MURDERED AT SANDY HOOK BUT YOU’RE BEING USED!"

And the latest on the left's outrageous gun-grabbing program at the New York Times, "Rifts in Both Parties Complicate Odds for Gun Measure."

Marxist Melissa Harris-Perry Strikes Again!

At Weasel Zippers, "MSNBC Marxist Melissa Harris-Perry: “We Need To Impinge On Individual Freedoms” For “The Common Good”…"

Hateful Anti-Semitic Ghoul Walter James Casper III Tweets Jew-Bashing Attack on Pamela Geller — and Israel!

Flashback to 2011, "Racist Walter James Casper III Doubles-Down on Endorsement of Revolutionary Anti-Semitic Occupy Wall Street":

Racist Repsac3 has a big butthurt post whining about how he's not really a racist anti-Semitic Jew-basher, despite endorsing a movement that was founded on property expropriation, revolution, and anti-Jewish and anti-Israel eliminationism.

Oh, and the anti-Semitic Hatesac denied he hates Israel.

Right.

"Not hating" Israel no doubt explains why the despicable Hatesac's tweeting out this heinous attack on Pamela Geller, which includes an endorsement of the genocidal Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions program:

Why Pamela Geller's Hate Speech Should Be Barred — But BDS Allowed jd.fo/e1hh#.UWrMDaQv… via @jdforward
— J. Casper (@repsac3) April 14, 2013

And by the way, the lies in that Forward piece are so mendacious as to border on criminal insanity. Seriously. You can't take this argument seriously, unless you're a piece of inhuman refuse like Walter James Casper III:

Pamela Geller preaches venomous hatred of Muslims. She is one of the leading voices promoting the idea of “creeping Sharia” in the United States. Claiming that Islam, as a religion, is dedicated to eradicating Jews and eventually turning all others into Muslims by whatever means necessary is the very definition of hate speech. One might oppose BDS, consider it unfairly anti-Israel, or even consider it an unjust and threatening movement. But it is not hate speech, it is a political point of view.

Lies. All of it.

Pamela Geller rejects Islamic jihad not Muslims. Indeed, she's saved Muslims from honor killings. She's the ultimate advocate for the value and protection of human life. And of course, there is no such thing as "hate speech" in the United States. All political speech is protected short of advocacy of imminent violence. If anything, it's the BDS stormtroopers who fit the "hate speech" bill, if there ever was such a thing. The BDS program is truly genocidal, calling for the complete elimination of the Jewish state through the scam of the "right of return" of "Palestinian" refugees. This is Middle East Politics 101. See the Tablet, "NY Times, MSNBC Whitewash BDS":

Omar Barghouti, one of the Brooklyn BDS panelists, is on record saying that an end to occupation and settlement would not end the call for BDS, that he opposes the two-state solution, and that the right of return is the movement’s “foremost demand.” As he put it in 2001, Israel “was Palestine, and there is no reason why it should not be renamed Palestine.”

But RTWT.

None of these facts will matter to the literally demonic Walter James Casper III. Truth is no corrective to moral depravity --- which is why he was banned from this blog ages ago.

Pamela Geller Stands for Freedom at Chabad of Great Neck

My good friend Norman Gersman lives an "outfielder's strong arm throw" from the Chabad of Great Neck. He sent along the picture below. Norm mentioned to Pamela that he'd be forwarding it to me, and she says, "I love the American Power Blog!"

That's cool!

In any case, at Atlas Shrugs, "FORWARD: 'PAMELA GELLER GOT THE LAST LAUGH'." And, "HUNDREDS RALLY FOR FREE SPEECH AND THE OUSTER OF HABEEB AHMED."

Katy Perry and Alessandra Ambrosio at Coachella

Well, that looks like quite a weekend gathering. At London's Daily Mail, "Alessandra Ambrosio channels her inner hippie at Coachella as she lounges poolside in hot pink daisy dukes," and "Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio heats up desert music festival in hippie chic style."

Plus, "Katy Perry bares her midriff in whimsical Dali skirt and top at celeb-studded Coachella pool party."

Boy that would've been fun!

BONUS: LAT has more: "Coachella 2013 | April 12-14 & April 19-21."

Syrian Rebel Gets Head Blown Off

Great special effects!

Wait. That's not special effects. It's supposedly a Syria FSA rebel who gets half of his head blown off.

Not for the squeamish: "Warning: This is really grisly."