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.