Kelly Brook Bikini Photo

Via Twitter:

Obama Mismanagement May Have Allowed Bombings

At IBD, "Bureaucratic Mismanagement May Have Allowed Bombings":

Lawrence Wright, author in 2006 of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of al-Qaida, "The Looming Tower," wrote in an open letter 6-1/2 years ago to his fellow Pulitzer-winning journalist, Steve Coll: "The reorganization of our intelligence agencies — through the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the new office of Director of National Intelligence — has done nothing to improve the bureaucratic tangles, the institutional incomprehension, and the limited skill set of our operatives; indeed, in many respects, it has only added a new overlay of confusion."

As Wright pointed out, "Communication broke down at a crucial time — exactly during the period that al-Qaida was making its plans for 9/11."

As Chambliss noted, "Information sharing between agencies is critical. And we created the Department of Homeland Security to supervise that. We created the National Counter Terrorism Center to be the collection point for all of this information." He vowed to find out whether somebody "dropped the ball."

Whoever that somebody who dropped the ball is, you can bet the establishment media won't identify him as the guy who shoots hoops at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

As a candidate, President Obama relished ridiculing what he called the Bush administration's "color-coded politics of fear" and its "rigid 20th century ideology" unsuited to fighting "21st century's stateless terrorism."

But five years into his tenure as president, Obama doesn't seem to be a very good manager of the government bureaucracies charged with protecting Americans from terror.

The Honey-Trap of Moral Equivalence

From Douglas Murray, at Gatestone:

Today, in an age that often seems of pragmatism and managerial-ism in politics, if there is a way not just to honor the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's memory but to continue her legacy it should be to encourage and praise those rare individuals who are willing to buck such trends. In Canada recently, I have had an opportunity to reflect on the perhaps surprising fact (also surprising to many Canadians) that in recent years Canada has shown itself to be a home to convictions which ennoble the present and can stand proud before history. The Harper government's moral clarity on a number of issues –in particular religious freedom and Israel – demonstrate a stand that can be rightly admired and celebrated by free peoples around the world.

Over the last decade the issue of religious freedom has come out of the rear-view mirror to a position of utmost importance, especially among minority communities. But nowhere does it matter more than in the Middle East. As Canada's Foreign Minister, John Bair, must have been reminded on his recent trip to the region, whether you compare what is happening across that region to events in Europe in 1848 or 1991, such historical comparisons are of limited use. What is happening there now, the upsurge of Islam, is a once-in-a-lifetime event. And although none of our countries may any longer have the capability or will to have a permanent military presence in the region, the significance of what soft diplomacy we can muster, and what moral stands we insist on, may yet prove far more important.

Continue reading.

Hat Tip: Blazing Cat Fur (the essential Canadian counter-jihad blog).

Police Officer Saves Man From Being Hit by Train

A lifesaver.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: Dramatic moment Colombian police officer drags man from platform edge seconds before train hurtles into station."

Syrian Rebels Direct Hit by Tank Shell

A freakin' wicked video, via Blazing Cat Fur, "Bad day for the Rebels."

Tsarnaevs Were on Welfare!

Andrea Tantaros leads off at "The Five":

Awesome Interview With Boston Bombing Survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis

She asked for a whiskey while waiting for medical help --- that's my kind of lady.

At CNN, "Boston bombing survivor: I take it day by day."

David Sirota and the Definition of Hate Speech

From Sheryl Longin, at PJ Media:

So much has been written (and is worth reading) about David Sirota’s Salon article, “Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American,” in particular, posts by Richard Fernandez, Roger Kimball, and my husband, Roger Simon, that Sirota felt compelled to write a second piece, doubling down and attempting to justify his initial thoughts. In spite of all the scrutiny, something fundamental has been overlooked, hiding in plain sight.

It is a sometimes less than admirable but nonetheless completely understandable and basic human reaction to be protective of groups with which one has a connection. When a crime is committed, people often hope that the perpetrator is not a member of said group. I am certain that many parents and relatives of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia hoped that the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook massacre would not turn out to have a mental illness. When Dr. George Tiller, an OB/Gyn and abortion provider, was assassinated in 2009, I am certain that pro-life advocates across the country were hoping his killer would not be an anti-abortion activist. When two bombs were detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, I am certain that millions of Muslims were hoping the terrorists would not be adherents of Islam.

That is not what David Sirota was doing. What if the parent of a mentally ill young person expressed publicly after the rampage at Sandy Hook that he/she hoped the killer was an Islamic terrorist? What if a pro-life advocate publicly hoped that Dr. Tiller’s murderer would turn out to be an African American gang member? That is precisely what David Sirota was doing. And that is hate speech plain and simple. When it becomes acceptable to wish in public for people you disagree with to be heinous murderers (and without even the slightest bit of evidence), we have crossed a line that doesn’t allow for a functioning democratic society. I’d like to say that I hope David Sirota isn’t an American citizen, because his words of hate shame me, but sadly, the truth is that he is one of us and if we don’t call out his crime, we are condoning it...

Oh, by all means call these f-kers out. They're despicable racist losers and terror enablers. Call them out, big time.

More at the link.

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

Bomb Suspect Was Put on Two Watch Lists

At the Wall Street Journal, "CIA, FBI Flagged Him for Concern, Raising New Questions About Missed Opportunities to Prevent Fatal Boston Attack":

U.S. authorities put alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev on two separate watch lists in 2011 after Russian security agencies twice reached out to their American counterparts, raising new questions about missed opportunities to prevent the attack.

Russian officials contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March 2011, then reached out to the Central Intelligence Agency in September of that year, citing concerns Mr. Tsarnaev might have been associating with extremists, according to U.S. officials.

The FBI has said it interviewed Mr. Tsarnaev and conducted a threat assessment, but found nothing "derogatory" that could prompt further investigation. A U.S. law-enforcement official said the case was closed after three months, after which the FBI asked Russian counterparts for additional information, but received none.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that at the request of the CIA, Mr. Tsarnaev was added to a broad database called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which holds hundreds of thousands of names flagged by multiple U.S. security agencies.

RTWT.

Also at the Boston Globe, "Russia alerted US repeatedly about suspect, senators say: Brothers may have planned to go to NYC next."

Plus, from Pamela Geller, "OBAMA'S EPIC FAIL: CIA WANTED BOSTON JIHADI BOMBER PLACED ON TERROR WATCHLIST."

Terror Widow Katherine Russell 'Should Be Jailed for Wearing Headbag (Hijab)'

Says Ann Coulter on Sean Hannity's, via Bare Naked Islam, "Ann Coulter: "“Boston Muslim Bomber’s wife should be jailed for wearing a headbag (hijab)”."

The Left and Terrorism: Stupidity or Willful Blindness?

Yeah, they're idiots alright, but for many progressives it's actually willful blindness that describes their terror enabling, and that's evil.

At Power Line, "WHY DOES EVIL MAKE LIBERALS STUPID?"

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, we are suffering through the inevitable period of liberal hand-wringing. Liberals can’t help themselves: while normal people are reviling the bombers, celebrating their capture or death, and debating measures that can be taken to prevent future atrocities, liberals’ thinking (if you can call it that) goes in a different direction. Liberals call for understanding; tell the rest of us we don’t realize how complex mass murder is; recommend introspection (But why? I didn’t do it.); and warn against various forms of overreaction to the latest terrorist outrage. The reality of evil, a constant in human affairs for millennia, renders liberals not speechless–that would be too much to hope for–but incoherent.

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

Image Credit: The Looking Spoon, "Fool America Once, Shame On You. Fool America Dozens Of Times, Shame On Liberals."

Our Welfare State Terrorists

For the left, the hits keep coming, at Lonely Conservative, "Boston Bombers Were Welfare Recipients." Also at My Pet Jawa, "Terrorists & Family Living Off Welfare." (Via Memeorandum.)

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva: 'I Don't Care if My Youngest Son Is Killed...'

This is truly bizarre, at Gateway Pundit, "WHOA!… Zubeidat Tsarnaeva Tells CNN: “I Don’t Care if My Youngest Son Is Killed. I Don’t Care If I Am Killed. I Will Say Allahu Akbar!” (Video)

And at London's Daily Mail, "Mother of Boston Marathon bombers may be ARRESTED if she returns to U.S. after failing to appear on shoplifting charge."

Most Expect 'Occasional Acts of Terrorism' in the Future

At Pew Research, "Six-in-Ten Say Post-9/11 Steps Have Made Country Safer":

Last week’s bombings at the Boston Marathon attracted broad public interest: 63% of Americans say they followed the story very closely, among the highest interest in any news story in the past decade. And the bombings drew far more public attention than any terrorist event since Sept. 11, 2001, which 78% reported following very closely in mid-October of that year.

While the Boston bombings riveted most Americans, the incident appeared to confirm the public’s long-held belief that occasional terrorist acts are to be expected. Over the past decade, majorities have consistently said that “occasional acts of terrorism in the U.S. will be part of life in the future.” This sentiment has spiked to 75% in the wake of the Boston bombings from 64% a year ago and now matches the previous high of 74% in 2003.

Continue reading.

Naturally, Democrats are less likely to say that government action has made the country safer, no doubt a lingering indicator of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Denmark Rethinks Its Much Too Generous Welfare State

That Abe Greenwald piece reminded me of this one, at NYT, "Danes Rethink a Welfare State Ample to a Fault":

COPENHAGEN — It began as a stunt intended to prove that hardship and poverty still existed in this small, wealthy country, but it backfired badly. Visit a single mother of two on welfare, a liberal member of Parliament goaded a skeptical political opponent, see for yourself how hard it is.

It turned out, however, that life on welfare was not so hard. The 36-year-old single mother, given the pseudonym “Carina” in the news media, had more money to spend than many of the country’s full-time workers. All told, she was getting about $2,700 a month, and she had been on welfare since she was 16.

In past years, Danes might have shrugged off the case, finding Carina more pitiable than anything else. But even before her story was in the headlines 16 months ago, they were deeply engaged in a debate about whether their beloved welfare state, perhaps Europe’s most generous, had become too rich, undermining the country’s work ethic. Carina helped tip the scales.

With little fuss or political protest — or notice abroad — Denmark has been at work overhauling entitlements, trying to prod Danes into working more or longer or both. While much of southern Europe has been racked by strikes and protests as its creditors force austerity measures, Denmark still has a coveted AAA bond rating.

But Denmark’s long-term outlook is troubling. The population is aging, and in many regions of the country people without jobs now outnumber those with them.

Some of that is a result of a depressed economy. But many experts say a more basic problem is the proportion of Danes who are not participating in the work force at all — be they dawdling university students, young pensioners or welfare recipients like Carina who lean on hefty government support.

“Before the crisis there was a sense that there was always going to be more and more,” Bjarke Moller, the editor in chief of publications for Mandag Morgen, a research group in Copenhagen. “But that is not true anymore. There are a lot of pressures on us right now. We need to be an agile society to survive.”

Yeah. That's not going be sustainable. But I'm sure leftists can still find ways to argue the European social model beats America any day. Idiots.

But read it all at that top link.

The Age of Hope and Shame

From Abe Greenwald, at Commentary:

The Obama years are the years of hope and shame. That’s what’s left once you’ve hollowed out the space traditionally occupied by informed debate. Liberals, led by the president, merely hope that gun laws and background checks will stem gun violence. There’s no debating the merits. So when people disagree, it can only be attributed to shameful intentions, not thoughtful misgivings about effectiveness. Liberals hope that expanding the welfare state will do more good for more people. The facts of Europe don’t apply. So when conservatives disagree it’s because they’re shamefully indifferent to human suffering, not concerned about an unsustainable initiative. Obama hopes we’re no longer in a war on terror but engaged in a cleaner-sounding war on al-Qaeda. If you think a recent string of terrorism attempts in America demonstrates otherwise, shame on you. Without self-righteousness liberals have no case.

Man, that's a freakin' great piece.

RTWT.

NPR's Dina Temple Raston Blamed #Boston Bombing on 'Right-Wing Individuals'

And still, some despicable leftists are already attempting to shove these inconvenient facts down the memory hole.

At AoSHQ, "After Four Days of Speculatively Blaming the Right and Anticipating What Poltical Solutions We Might Need To Address Their Growing Menace, Left Declares That the Time for Speculation and Political Wargaming Has Passed."

Because "right wing individuals" are all about Hitler's birthday, or some such shit.

Progressives are the biggest assholes. And losers.

Princeton Political Scientist Richard Falk Says #Boston Had It Coming

The scum of my profession, this Richard Falk.

Here's the dude's bio:

Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.

See Blazing Cat Fur, "U.N. Scumbag Says Boston Got What It Deserved."

And at FrontPage Magazine, "U.N. Human Rights Official Calls Boston Bombing “Blowback” and “Resistance”."

New York Times Interactive on Moment Runners Neared Finish Line at #Boston Marathon

Via Emily Stanitz on Twitter. Click through to watch:

Incredible NYT interactive on runners at the #BostonMarathon finish line the moment the first bomb exploded nyti.ms/10ugUdV
— Emily Stanitz (@emilystanitz) April 23, 2013

Obama's Gun Control Defeat Raises Questions About His Effectiveness

It's about time we're getting some critical reporting like this, at the New York Times even.

See, "In Gun Bill Defeat, a President Who Hesitates to Twist Arms":

WASHINGTON — Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska, asked President Obama’s administration for a little favor last month. Send your new interior secretary this spring to discuss a long-simmering dispute over construction of a road through a wildlife refuge, Mr. Begich asked in a letter. The administration said yes.

Four weeks later, Mr. Begich, who faces re-election next year, ignored Mr. Obama’s pleas on a landmark bill intended to reduce gun violence and instead voted against a measure to expand background checks. Mr. Obama denounced the defeat of gun control steps on Wednesday as “a shameful day.”

But Mr. Begich’s defiance and that of other Democrats who voted against Mr. Obama appear to have come with little cost. Sally Jewell, the interior secretary, is still planning a trip to Alaska — to let Mr. Begich show his constituents that he is pushing the government to approve the road.

The trip will also reinforce for Mr. Begich and his colleagues a truth about Mr. Obama: After more than four years in the Oval Office, the president has rarely demonstrated an appetite for ruthless politics that instills fear in lawmakers. That raises a broader question: If he cannot translate the support of 90 percent of the public for background checks into a victory on Capitol Hill, what can he expect to accomplish legislatively for his remaining three and a half years in office?

Robert Dallek, a historian and biographer of President Lyndon B. Johnson, said Mr. Obama seems “inclined to believe that sweet reason is what you need to use with people in high office.” That contrasts with Johnson’s belief that “what you need to do is to back people up against a wall,” Mr. Dallek said.

“Obama has this more reasoned temperament,” he said. “It may well be that it’s not the prescription for making gains. It raises questions about his powers of persuasion.”

Some supporters said the imperative of the moment requires more force from Mr. Obama. “He needs to turn up the heat every way he can and every chance he gets because it’s not political points or poll numbers that are at stake but lives,” said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a New York Democrat who has sponsored a gun control bill in the House.

The White House on Monday defended the president’s efforts on the gun legislation, saying he had made a vigorous effort to lobby wavering senators. “He made numerous phone calls and had numerous meetings,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “And his entire team here engaged in this process completely and thoroughly.”

But the president has long struggled to master his relationship with Congress. During his first two and a half years in office, he favored what aides called an inside approach, working quietly in back rooms to convince lawmakers of the logic of his positions. That worked better when Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate, and he passed legislation to expand health care, regulate Wall Street and spend hundreds of billions of dollars to stimulate the economy.

Well, he's a shitty president who can't tell the difference between his ass and a homosexual rim-station.

But RTWT.

RELATED: "Public Support For Gun Control Ebbs."

And to think, the gun-grabbing Dems work the shame strategy for all it was worth. I'd say they "worked it to death," but that wouldn't be cool.

'Stereotypically White Americans'

At Big Journalism, "CNN'S ERIN BURNETT SURPRISED BOMBING SUSPECTS AREN'T 'STEREOTYPICAL' AMERICANS.

"Wait ... Let me make sure I understand. Sorry, I want to make you understand. So they're still looking into the possibility that even though these two kids look very, very stereotypically like they're from here that this may be linked to a foreign terror group?"

Of course. Stereotypical.

Reese Witherspoon Apologizes After Arrest for Disorderly Conduct

At London's Daily Mail, "'You're about to find out who I am': What Reese Witherspoon said to police after arrest for 'disorderly conduct'... as her and husband Jim Toth's mugshots are revealed."

Dream Angels Extended Cut

Lovely:

RELATED: "What makes a successful lingerie shoot? Victoria's Secret Angels reveal it's all down to the 'sexy heat' in behind the scenes clip."

College Enrollment Dips Amid Massive Debt Pile

At IBD, "College Enrollment Dips As Student Loan Debt Nears $1 Trillion":

For the first time since the recession started, the college enrollment rate among young people has slipped, possibly signaling slower growth in student debt amid soaring delinquency rates and poor employment prospects.

In October 2012, 32.7% of people 16 to 24 years old were enrolled in college, the Labor Department said Wednesday in its annual reading. That's down from 33.4% a year earlier. The last time there was a decline was in 2006.

The total number enrolled also dropped to 12.7 million from 12.8 million, despite a slight uptick in the number of fresh high school graduates entering college...

RTWT.

Glenn Reynolds wrote about this kind of thing: "The Higher Education Bubble."

The Truth About Islam, the World's Most Violent Religion

At Saberpoint, "Why the Boston Bombers Did It (Hint: It's In the Koran)":

Question: Does the Quran really contain dozens of verses promoting violence?

Summary Answer: The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter. Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran. Most of today's Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book's many calls to violence according to what their own moral preconceptions find justifiable. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology. Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.

More at the link.

Karolina Kurkova Gun Dress Causes Sensation

It's a twofer: guns and gams (beautiful gams, which of course just makes the feminists that much more pissed).

At the Mellow Jihadi, "Karolina Kurkova Wears Gun Skirt, World Ends."

Latest Updates on #Boston Terrorist Attack

At the Wall Street Journal, "Fresh Bomb Details Revealed: Prosecutors Describe Suspect's 'Calm' Behavior; Charges Could Carry Death Penalty."

Tsarnaev has been charged as a non-combatant defendant. Legal Insurrection has the indictment, "Unsealed Complaint and Affidavit – U.S. v Dzhokhar Tsarnaev."

This morning's Wall Street Journal made the case for denying Miranda rights, and Paul Gigot elaborates at the clip. See, "Enemy Combatants in Boston."

Less compelling is Michael Mukasey's op-ed published this morning as well, "Make No Mistake, It Was Jihad." The arguments against providing Miranda are basically about preventing another attack, an obviously high-priority goal. The only problem is that this attack is looking more and more as if it could have been prevented. That earlier FBI interrogation of Tamerlan is a major intelligence fiasco. Not to throw up our hands here. Only to say, hey, when you've got them by the balls don't throw it all away. People are getting blown to bits.

More at the New York Times, "Boston Bombing Suspect's Bedside Hearing," and London's Dail Mail, "'You can rouse him now': Extraordinary scene of Boston Marathon bomber's bedside arraignment, as he's read his Miranda Rights and only manages to say one word" (via Memeorandum).

Suspicion Falls on Dead Terror Suspect's Widow

At the New York Post, "Wife of suspected Boston Marathon bomber faces FBI's heat."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Feds to question Boston bomber's widow as she says she was 'watching TV when she discovered husband was a suspect'."

Canada Terror Plot Thwarted

It's been feeling a lot like the days after September 11, 2001.

At Atlas Shrugs, "MAJOR JIHAD TERROR PLOT TO ATTACK NEW YORK-TORONTO RAILROAD THWARTED IN CANADA: 'IT WAS MEANT TO BE SPECTACULAR AND THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CARNAGE'."

And check Blazing Cat Fur:

* "Canada: Muslims Fear Backlash Over Latest Thwarted Terror Plot - Linked to Amish Division of Al Qaeda."

* "Idiot Apologists: Cair Canada Demands Government Not Pass Combating Terrorism Act Same Day As Via Rail Muslim Terrorists Arrested."

* "Chiheb Esseghair web page disappears in a Hurry."

More at Telegraph UK, "Canadian police foil al Qaeda-backed plot to derail train."

CNN Stumbles in Boston Terrorism Coverage

From David Carr, at the New York Times, "The Pressure to Be the TV News Leader Tarnishes a Big Brand":

Like a lot of Americans, when I woke up on Friday morning and found out there was a manhunt in the Boston area for the remaining suspect in Monday’s bombing at the marathon, I turned on CNN.

It’s a common impulse, although less common than it used to be. The news audience has been chopped up into ideological camps, and CNN’s middle way has been clobbered in the ratings. The legacy networks’ news divisions can still flex powerful muscles on big stories, and Twitter and other real-time social media sites have seduced a whole new cohort of news consumers.

But the biggest damage to CNN has been self-inflicted — never more so than in June, when in a rush to be first, it came running out of the Supreme Court saying that President Obama’s health care law had been overturned. It was a hugely embarrassing error.

Still, when big news breaks, we instinctively look to CNN. We want CNN to be good, to be worthy of its moment. That impulse took a beating last week. On Wednesday at 1:45 p.m., the correspondent John King reported that a suspect had been arrested. It was a big scoop that turned out to be false.

Mr. King, a good reporter in possession of a bad set of facts, was joined by The Associated Press, Fox News, The Boston Globe and others, but the stumble could not have come at a worse time for CNN. When viewers arrived in droves — the audience tripled to 1.05 million, from 365,000 the week before, according to Nielsen ratings supplied by Horizon Media — CNN failed in its core mission.

It was not the worst mistake of the week — The New York Post all but fingered two innocent men in a front-page picture — but it was a signature error for a live news channel.

Continue reading.

I didn't even turn on the TV during much of the breaking news. Twitter is where the action is.

Boston Terrorism Update: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Responding to Questions in Writing

At the Wall Street Journal, "Bombing Suspect In and Out of Consciousness." Also, "Prosecutors Plot Strategic Course."

Also, at the New York Times, "Officials Say Bomb Suspects Appeared Set to Attack Again."

Al Neuharth, 1924-2013

From the Los Angeles Times, "Al Neuharth dies at 89; newspaper mogul created USA Today":

USA Today was a different kind of newspaper, designed for a generation of readers raised on television who lacked the time and inclination to read lengthy stories. A bold retort to the gray pages of traditional newspapers, it had color photographs, eye-catching graphics and bite-sizestories with paragraphs set off by bullets. Organized into four distinct sections, it featured a brightly hued full-page weather map and catered to sports fans with a mass of game results and other statistics.

Neuharth, who aimed to capture an increasingly mobile generation of readers desiring an easy-to-digest format when they were at home or on the road, dubbed it "The Nation's Newspaper."

"Our audience will be the whole damned country, but we think we can attract a slice of 4 or 5 percent of the more affluent, better-educated people over most areas of the country," Neuharth predicted in a 1982 interview with the Miami Herald. "We won't compete locally. We will be a second buy."

Critics, however, derided the paper as gimmicky and "junk food journalism." "McPaper" became a favorite put-down by traditional journalists appalled by its emphasis on brief, breezy stories. Newsweek poked fun at its founder as "the man who shortened the attention spans of millions of Americans."

It lost money for the first five years. But by its fifth anniversary in 1987, revenues had begun to rise and critics began to change their tune, with stories in other newspapers describing USA Today as innovative, even revolutionary.

By the early 1990s, major dailies, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, were redesigning their pages to be more reader-friendly, adding color, snappy graphics and stories that read more quickly.

RTWT.

An interesting guy.

Sorry, Media, No White Tea Partiers Were Involved

From Investors Business Daily:

In 2002, about 40 armed Chechen separatists took more than 900 hostages at Moscow's Dubrovka Theatre, a siege that resulted in the deaths of 130 hostages and all of the Chechen terrorists.

The world also watched in horror in 2004 as armed Islamic separatist militants, some Chechen, occupied a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, and killed more than 380 people.
By all accounts, the Tsarnaev brothers were fully Americanized, permanent residents attending U.S. schools. But as such they were the perfect "sleepers," terrorists in waiting, ripe for recruiting, particularly considering their place of origin.

Leftists such as Sirota bemoan "profiling" and "stereotyping" while they engage in a variety all their own. Sirota complained that the likes of Timothy McVeigh are treated as lone wolves while Muslim terrorists are treated as existential threats, that "white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted" for their acts.

Islamofascist terrorists, and the regimes and groups that support them, do constitute an existential threat. There have not been many Swedish terrorists; and what Sirota calls profiling we would call a description of the suspects. We wonder what part of "death to America" Sirota and his colleagues do not understand.

More at that top link.

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

Katherine Russell, Widow of Marathon Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Converted to Islam, Wore Hijab, Was 'Brainwashed' by Extremist Husband

Such an ultimate bummer that this young lady got mixed up with that jihadi loser scum.

At London's Daily Mail, "EXCLUSIVE - How doctor's daughter became the Muslim convert widow of Boston bomber: Terrorist husband 'brainwashed' her and she gave up her dreams of college to have his baby at 21":

None who knew her as a child could have dreamed that this would be the face she would one day present to the world, nor that her life and those of so many Bostonians would be so violently caught up with two brothers from Chechnya and a cause as unclear as it was brutal.

As a girl growing up in Rhode Island Katherine was known to her friends as Katie. One school friend who asked not to be named recalled: ‘I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed. She was not the same person at all.’

Sunday Night Rule 5

Via Guns and Bikinis:

What We Know About the Tsarnaevs

From Mandy Nagy, at Legal Insurrection, "The Lives of the Boston Bombers: What We Do and Don’t Know."

Marxist Melissa Harris-Perry Rejects Islam as Relevant to Boston Bombing

Well, I'd call it bizarre but this is MSNBC we're talking about.

Via Pat Dollard, "MSNBC Terror-Enabler Melissa Harris-Perry Says Jihad Had Nothing To Do With Boston Attack, Only Bigots Would Think So." (Via Memeorandum.)

#Boston Bombing: Obama Lulled America Into False Confidence Over Terror Threat

At Flopping Aces, "Obama lulled America into false sense of security."

This administration has never been about fighting terrorism to keep Americans safe --- it's been about fighting to keep Democrats in power.

Remember "President Gutsy Call"?

Well, it's jihad in America now. The Democrats will have plenty to answer for come November 2014.

Cartoon Credit: Bosch Fawstin.

Looks Like Wendy Greuel's Gonna Need a Bigger Comeback Kid!

Here's yesterday's report at KABC-TV Los Angeles, "Bill Clinton joins Wendy Greuel at LA mayoral campaign event."

But as the Los Angeles Times reports today, Greuel's trailing badly in the mayor's race, "Garcetti opens 10-point lead over Greuel":

Eric Garcetti has opened a commanding 10-point lead in the Los Angeles mayor's race over rival Wendy Greuel, whose dogged fight to win the backing of public employee unions appears to be undercutting her on her home turf in the San Fernando Valley, according to a new USC Price/Los Angeles Times poll.

A month before the May 21 runoff, likely voters favored Garcetti over Greuel by 50% to 40%.

The survey also found no sign of success for Greuel's effort to gain an edge among women by highlighting her potential to make history as the city's first female mayor. Women preferred Garcetti, 50% to 41%.

Latinos and younger voters backed Garcetti by still wider margins. The city councilman from Silver Lake has strengthened his standing in the central city and Eastside neighborhoods that he won decisively in the March primary. He has also built a solid lead on the Westside — a key target of Greuel's.

Perhaps most worrisome for Greuel, the city controller, is her failure so far to establish a base in the Valley, where the two are effectively tied. Greuel, who lives in Studio City, had hoped that audits by her office that found wasteful spending of taxpayer money would appeal to the Valley's Republicans, often a pivotal vote in L.A. elections.

Instead, Garcetti has emerged with a lopsided lead among conservatives citywide, picking up support from many of those who voted in the primary for Republican radio personality Kevin James, now a Garcetti backer.

Greuel's tepid support in the Valley, which she represented on the City Council from 2002 to 2009, poses a major challenge for her in the closing weeks of the race. Though Democrats dominate the Valley, many of the city's Republicans live on its western and northern ends.

She's through.

I doubt even the "Comeback Kid" can help her at this point.

Garcetti's a stealth Marxist, by the way. This ought to be interesting.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Thermal Imaging Video

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Video of Dzhokar Tsarnaev In Boat."

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).