POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

CSI: Spokane

If you haven't read Iowahawk's CSI: Tucson, please go over there and have a laugh.

Then, check this out:

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Spokane office of the FBI confirmed late Tuesday morning that a suspicious package found along the route of the Unity Parade on Monday morning was a credible threat that had the potential to cause "multiple casualties."

On Tuesday morning the FBI released a statement confirming that following the successful disruption of the device by the Explosives Disposal Unit, “preliminary analysis revealed the backpack contained a potentially deadly destructive device, likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties.”

The backpack, a black Swiss Army pack, was found by a city employee Monday morning at approximately 9:30 a.m. in a parking lot across from the INB Performing Arts Center. After it was reported, authorities shut down several blocks in the vicinity of the intersection of Main Avenue and Washington Street.

This forced a detour in the parade route, which had been scheduled to move past where the device was found.

*******

The FBI confirmed the device was contained in a Swiss Army backpack which contained several T-shirts, including a Stevens County Relay For Life 2010 shirt and a Treasure Island Spring 2009 shirt. See the FBI Request For Information (PDF) for pictures of the pack and shirts found inside.

FBI special agent Frank Harrill said the investigation into the device has become a top priority, adding that the timing and placement of the device wasn't coincidental.

So, what we're looking for here is a pro-life pirate in good physical condition, who may or may not have been at some time a member of the Swiss Army. If you know anyone fitting this description who may have been in the Spokane area this week, please contact the FBI.

Thanks to Memeorandum for the link.

In all seriousness, though, I'd like to request prayers for Judge Roll and family. He died protecting one of the wounded in the shootings (via Moe Lane).

Please also say a prayer for the soul of this young man.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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My Last Words on Loughner? [UPDATE]

I hope so. At least until the trial. There's not a whole lot more meaning that can be derived from the event, in my opinion, and when even the NYT is delivering pseudo-apologies through its ombudsman, it seems as though the forces of slander are in full retreat, even though dead-enders like Kinsley don't know that they've had their asses handed to them, yet. Even Time recognizes it's a losing call. The feds who have searched through the evidence with the kind of thoroughness and urgency news bureaus would give to Palin's garbage haven't found any right-wing rhetorical smoking gun.

I know that the far left are feeling betrayed over Obama's unambiguous (it seems to me) statement that Loughner's atrocity had nothing to do with political rhetoric. It marks a significant advance in intelligence on the part of President Stupidly's own rhetoric, and is perhaps an early indication that this Daley fellow from Chicago has brought a sense of reality to the White House, whether or not that White House is being directed by radical daughter Valerie Jarrett, as is asserted once again by Ulsterman's mysterious Insider. How he's managing to escape detection, I'm not sure, but at this point the White House has probably detailed significant resources to finding out who he is.

The picture that he paints of Obama's demeanor just after the speech he delivered at the U of Arizona is disturbing, but not surprising:

Here is something that you will never hear from the media but that some witnessed shortly after the memorial service had finished. Behind the staging area, Obama gave Michelle a “high five” and shared a laugh with her. So within minutes of seeing what is Obama’s finest moment as president it is followed by one of his worst. It is this easy and always there contradiction in the president that concerns me very very much. He was just thrilled at his performance. That was priority #1 for him. It always is. The motivation for his speech was not to heal following the tragedy, but to further appeal to the public and get their approval of him. It’s similar to that story I told you about Obama coming into the military meeting at the WH. He came in laughing and left early laughing. Maybe a photo of the high five will be released? I was told one was taken at any rate. I cannot reconcile with that kind of behavior in a leader. There really is something missing in him. Some basic element of humanity. Or humility??? Even by DC political standards the human element in Obama seems to be utterly absent. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. And that scares the hell out of me. So that’s my assessment of the Tucson speech.

Insider is a disgruntled Hillaryite--something he never tries do hide--and expresses disappointment that she didn't seize the opportunity handed to her by some deep-pocketed people to begin preparation for a 2012 run. He seems to believe that she has missed the window of opportunity. At the same time, the usual MSM apparatchiks are touting probably deeply flawed polls showing Obama's national approval at 54% and opposition to HCR waning, as prophylaxis.

At the same time, and possibly in response to the RNC's election of Reince Priebus to National Chair, he feels that Palin has been neutralized, at least as an electoral threat. One snarky Twitter pundit was asking last night if any nationally known Republicans were not assembling exploratory committees in the lead up to 2012. Oddly enough, I think that the House Republicans' reluctance to sign on to Paul Ryan's economic road map boosts the odds that he will shake out to be the nominee, triangulating between the inexperience of Palin (underscored this week by Chris Christie) and the lifer mentality of eternal will-o-the-wisp McCain. The fundamental difference between Palin and McCain is that she has principles, which is why she's demonized and he's lauded by the MSM and the left commentariat.

Incidentally, Insider makes mince-meat of the idea that the U of Arizona had no Team Obama input for the "Together We Thrive" t-shirt debacle:

The things happening outside the speech though left many of us wondering who was in charge of planning the event because that environment was almost a disaster. You were right to call into question the t-shirts. That was in very poor taste. The excuse that the Obama administration had nothing to do with those t-shirts is completely false. Every detail is run by the administration on this kind of event. Every last detail. Also, many who had attended were actually coached to be “very supportive” of President Obama.

Not that that would sway PolitiFact, who weigh some hearsay evidence more than other. He goes on to say that Issa's projected investigations are causing suppressed panic in the White House. It's going to be interesting to see what the MSM make of the tell-all books as they begin to come out. Whether Obama's in trouble politically or not in the run-up to 2012 is going to depend largely on the ability of alternate media to put the spotlight on the issues that will be elided in favor of media-circus bullshit like the right-wing responsibility for Loughner. Which is why I want to wrap this up, though the topic remains open to others here, if they want to pursue it.

Also, there haven't been enough posts on breasts, recently.

Stacy's been doing a bang-up job investigating what's in the Zeitgeist conspiracy video that had such a profound impact on Loughner, by way of externalizing and justifying his paranoia, just as Freud saw in the physical symptoms of shell-shock a hypercathexis against trauma--trauma that in this instance was inflicted by the onset of schizophrenia, which is clearly visible in its cortical manifestations, so long as one has X-ray specs. Having discovered this connection was undeniable, the lefty lunatics have been busy trying to paint the video as the product of wingers, despite its being the work of New Age conspiracy wackjobs.

Speaking of which, in a speech in Doha, Qatar, Seymour Hersh stamped his passport to the Outer Limits:

“That’s the attitude,” Hersh continued. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command.”

Hersh also alleged that General Stanley McChrystal, who headed Joint Special Operations Command before becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Admiral William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.”

“Many of them are members of Opus Dei,” Hersh continued. “They do see what they’re doing — and this is not an atypical attitude among some military — it’s a crusade, literally. They seem themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”

“They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins,” he continued. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.”

These are the mutterings of a fevered, obsessive mind. His strange, conspiracy-plagued world is dominated by neo-conservatives and Opus Dei crusaders who are reliving the 13th century. Such writers now find a welcoming home at the New Yorker.

So, here we have the spectacle of a Jew warning Muslims that the Pope is trying to take over the world. Awesome.

Speaking of etiolated connections, it's been discovered that the high school that Loughner attended was backed by Ayers-Obama Annenberg funds, and pursued an alternative curriculum. That's interesting, but unfortunately the pseudo-intellectual anthropological relativist gibberish that was stuffed into Loughner's head comprises a large portion of the paedeia of virtually any public school these days. Less stretchy, IMO, is the theory that Gisele Bundchen was planted by the New York Jets into Tom Brady's life to rob him of his mojo. For the moment, I don't even want to consider the Albolene conspiracy, outlined by Suzette, who along with Fausta attended a soiree at Bingley's, whose blog mentioned us favorably over the weekend, and whose birthday it is today. So go over there and congratulate him.

Meanwhile, the Tucson Tea Party guy that got threatened by left-loony Fuller has news for Sheriff Dipstick:

It has just come to my attention that a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department made the following statement on Saturday evening after the town hall, “If Humphries decides not to press charges, the charges will be dropped”. At no point was this information ever related to me before the statement was given to the press. I was actually led to believe the opposite. It was my understanding that because of the very public nature of the offense that charges would be filed regardless of my participation. Indeed, it is up to Pima County Prosecutor Barbara Lawall, and not the Sheriff’s Department, to decide that charges will be “dropped”. Like so much other misinformation reported this past week, the statement from the Sheriff’s office would appear to be an error of the press or another grave misunderstanding on the Sheriff”s part.

Post-deconstructionist Stanley Fish finds merit in Palin's latest book. Thoughts on the characterization of the psycho (well, what was Iago?). More on Fuller's background, and Dupnik.

Belated thanks to Pundit and Pundette and Maggie's Notebook for linking us up over the weekend, while Amanda Peet turned 39.

Finally, for Enoch, worst marketing post ever. Speaking of which, I'd better get back to work.

UPDATE: Welcome, Morons! Thanks for the link, Andy.

UPDATEx2: You know what you're doing when you're waiting for the bus in Tucson? Thriving. Unbe-freakin-lievable.

I think William Jacobson's obviously right on principle, but taking this fake Obama surge too alarmedly.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Packers-Bears Smack Talk Thread [Sticky; UPDATE]

I put Packers first because it's at Bears, okay?

So, to get things rolling: Journal-Sentinel writer traces rivalry to primordial mist, Tribune writer to primordial ooze.

And by "Ultimate Evil," I mean the Vikings.

Anything stupid will be nuked. Please be clever.

More ammo: Maybe the 'gnosticators underestimated the NFC North? Gee, wonder how that could be.

If you see any smack talked by any of the players or coaches, please cut and paste it into comments with source attribution.

UPDATE: A little excited, are we?

The worst seats at Soldier Field have been selling for roughly $500 on the secondary market, several ticket brokers said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, tickets posted on the Web site of the national ticket reseller StubHub had sold for an average of $823 over the last 24 hours, company spokeswoman Joellen Ferrer said.

More than 6,000 tickets were available Tuesday on StubHub, up from roughly 4,300 on Monday , Ferrer said. StubHub's gross sales for Sunday's game are the highest for any NFL conference championship game in the company's 10-year history, she said.

"It definitely speaks volumes for the demand and the excitement fans are feeling for the game," Ferrer said.

The highest price paid so far for a single ticket sold through StubHub is $4,100 for a seat on the Packers' side of the 50-yard line in Soldier Field's United Club, Ferrer said.

Also, you can always get your smack on, here.

UPDATEx2: Heated rhetoric

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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In Response to Tragedy Makes Bad Law

First off, I would say "atrocity," although Loughner's mental illness makes it closer to tragedy than, say, 9-11. It is tragic that he didn't get the help he needed, and that people died because of it, but it's still an atrocity when all is said and done. What it most isn't is what Pelosi calls it: an accident.

But over at RightNetwork, I posted on Loughner, language and schizophrenia, and in response to a comment from Jeffery, wrote this:

Some laws are the result of national policy debates. Some are conventions, such as driving on the right side of the road, taking your turn at a 4-way stop, that most sane people would deem necessary. Some are sheer impositions.

For example, not many people would assert that a person has a right to drive while intoxicated, and would support policemen in pulling over and testing someone who is driving erratically. On the other hand, sobriety checkpoints seem to many too invasive. Nevertheless, legislatures will justify such searches by saying, "If only one life is saved . . . ."

Still, it is possible for citizens to vote out anyone sponsoring or voting for such a measure, assuming that it's instituted by a legislature, rather than unilaterally decided upon by a police force in conjunction, say, with MADD. On the other hand, there is the EPA, for example. The EPA was created under Nixon, with no particular charter, except for the very vague one of protecting the environment, cobbled together from a variety of federal departments dedicated to conservation of waterways, etc. It's impossible not to observe that it has gone far beyond what anyone would have envisioned, and it has become a political instrument to be wielded in any way an administration sees fit. Therefore, the federal government can protect the Delta smelt, for example, by disallowing irrigation in what used to be a very fertile area of the State of California,and it needs no justification beyond protecting this one animal.

In former times, there were a couple of ways in which such a measure could be decided. It would involve a consideration of the "best and highest use" of the property in question. It would also be impossible to impose such conditions after the fact without compensation for what amounts to a government "taking." Because the EPA operates outside of the law, is in fact itself the law, both legislature without representation and juror, such considerations are no longer valid. And the administration is dedicated to the proposition that the best and highest use of lands that it seizes by fiat is for them to lie fallow.

Then there is the scam regarding greenhouse gases. You can go and take a look at what I've written here on the score of the SmartWay ratings for personal and fleet vehicles. Justify it as you will, it amounts to an attempt to impose conditions upon virtually every aspect of our economy, and the idea that it won't be wielded as a political instrument to reward certain corporations and punish others is laughable.

The recent power grabs by the FCC are another example, but I'll spare you a detailed analysis.

In the event, my position is that the increasing government invasions of privacy and restrictions on behavior justified by "security," whether of health, against terrorism, with regards to climate change (as it is now called), contemplated with regard to political rhetoric, and so forth, are not justified by the imagined benefits that they are promoted to encompass. People can clamor about civility as much as they want, but there's nothing civil about groping some priest's nads at a TSA checkpoint in order not to be accused of profiling. There's nothing civil about destroying a man's livelihood for a minnow. There's nothing civil about taking clunkers off the road with onerous inspections standards when people can't afford to replace them.

Spare me such civility.

Control. Licensure. Prohibition. Politics. Boodle. It's too damned much, and it needs to stop.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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On Teenage Pregnancies

I'm from West TN. Right outside Memphis. So when I was scanning Drudge this morning, naturally the heading "Shock: 90 Pregnancies at One Memphis High School" caught my eye. The article states that is over 20% of the entire female population at Frayser High. Many girls are getting pregnant on purpose because the "think it's cute." Some just don't understand what they are doing (apparently). Either way, these pregnancies add to the endless cycle of poverty,  lack of education and morals, one-parent homes, etc.  The girl being interviewed says it's the school's responsibility to educate the students about sex and provide protection. But really, how can that possibly help this egregious problem? It hasn't yet. So what are the answers? Are there any?

Johanna

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