Hey, I know that bar tender! But, why, WHY is the press still saying things like this:

There are still lingering questions as to what threats they may have posed.

No there aren't you idiots!

mooninites in atlanta

The Boston Police Department has shed some light on what occured yesterday. Apparently "real" fake pipe bombs were mixed in with the reports of the ATHF signs, and this contributed to the confusion.

# At 12:54 p.m. the Boston Police Bomb squad receives a call for a suspicious device [a Mooninite] at the intersection of Stuart and Charles Street.

# Six minutes later at 1:02 p.m. Boston Police received a call from New England Medical Center Security that they had uncovered a pipe bomb in their building in a desk drawer. Shortly thereafter Hospital Security reported that a suspect had been seen leaving the area of the pipe bomb in an agitated state stating, "God is warning you that today is going to be a sad Day." The suspect was reported to have fled the hospital.

The police reaction makes more sense in context. I can understand dealing with the first Mooninite with caution. The fact that a "real" fake pipe bomb from a crazy person was reported six minutes after the second report of a Mooninite could have easily contributed to the fear of a city wide incident.

This, however, does not excuse some of the rhetoric targetted at Turner from Boston's politicians, including and especially the ridiculous statement made by the Assistant Attorney General at this morning's arraignment that the Mooninites were intended to be mistaken for bombs.

Timeline Of Events In Scare - News

Bomb units scrambled across Boston and Somerville today to investigate several suspicious devices.

"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," Gov. Deval Patrick said.

This is an extremely serious situation," former FBI Director Bill Gavin told FOX News during the investigation.

"Whoever did this — whether it be kids or adults — if they think it's funny, I think they'll soon learn it's not that much of a humorous situation."

What a bunch of idiots!

It was a marketing campaign.

I'm reminded of the anti-terror unit in Atlanta that responded to dry ice in plastic bottles and the local prosecuter proceeded to bring the guilty party up on four felony counts because otherwise they would have had to admit that they over-reacted. You do not need to make criminals out of innocent people in order to justify your actions!

This is priceless:

At least one of the devices was described to FOX News as a computer keyboard, to which a picture of someone "flipping off" the viewer was taped. Officials at the time suggested that the picture might be an attempt to mock police investigating the device.

You and your "third dimension."

cbs4boston.com - Hoax Devices Creating Gridlock In Boston

National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications
Havaria Emergency and Disaster Information Services
Budapest Hungary

Well, here is one for your bookmark list. A website in Hungary that keeps an up to date map of the biggest disasters currently occuring everywhere on the planet. Its a death and destruction information console!

RSOE HAVARIA Emergency and Disaster Information Service

The most explosive question about the Taliban resurgence here along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is this: Have Pakistani intelligence agencies been promoting the Islamic insurgency?
...
Hamid Gul, the former director general of Pakistani intelligence, remains a public and unapologetic supporter of the Taliban, visiting madrasas and speaking in support of jihad at graduation ceremonies.

Afghan intelligence officials recently produced a captured insurgent who said Mr. Gul facilitated his training and logistics through an office in the Pakistani town of Nowshera, in the North-West Frontier Province, west of the capital, Islamabad.

NATO and American officials in Afghanistan say there is also evidence of support from current midlevel Pakistani intelligence officials. Just how far up that support reaches remains in dispute.

At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge - New York Times

Several hours into the program, Strange was interviewed and complained that her head hurt.

"They keep telling me that it's the water. That it will tell my head to hurt and then it will make me puke," she said.

"This is what it feels like when you're drowning," responded one of the DJs. "There's a lot of water inside you."

The more I hear about this the more fucked up it sounds.

AP Wire | 01/18/2007 | Family to sue radio station over water death

"I want to say that those people drinking all that water can get sick and die from water intoxication," said the caller."Yeah, we're aware of that," replied a DJ. "They signed releases so we're not responsible, okay?"

McGinness has said previously that he did not believe a criminal case is warranted because Strange took part in the contest of her own free will. However, after The Bee obtained a recording of the four-hour, 40-minute radio show that showed radio hosts discussing the possible dangers of the contest on air the sheriff said he believes a closer look is warranted and that his detectives will investigate.

Jennifer Strange Death - 10 fired, criminal investigation

A nurse was on air warning that drinking too much water is dangerous. Sherrod said a DJ rebuffed the nurse, saying the contestants signed waivers.

I am so mad about this. What happens when you try to drink as much water as you can in one sitting is you get desalinated and you die. This isn't hard information to come by. Google water overdose. They might as well have placed a revolver on the table with a single bullet in it and asked the contestants to pass it around. These idiots had a nurse on air telling them that they were going to kill somebody and yet the show went on. If there ever was a poster child for massive liability this is it. Waivers should not absolve responsibility for something this stupid.

Mom dies trying to win a Nintendo

Isn't doing the same thing and expecting different results the definition of insanity?

Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences: In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents, but when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned. This time, we'll have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared. In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods -- and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated.

If this was a problem before was the Republican Congress preventing you from increasing troop levels? If there has been political and sectarian interference, what does our decision making have to do with that? I have to wonder if the whole point of this is simply to be contrarian so that they can later argue that everything would be OK if they had been listened to. This ignores that fact that things would be much better if they hadn't been listened to in the first damn place.

Transcript of President's Address to the Nation

After 9/11, Vice President Richard Cheney seized the initiative. He pushed to expand executive power, transform America's intelligence agencies and bring the war on terror to Iraq. But first he had to take on George Tenet's CIA for control over intelligence.
[...]
Amid revelations about faulty prewar intelligence and a scandal surrounding the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff and presidential adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, FRONTLINE goes behind the headlines to investigate the internal war that was waged between the intelligence community and Richard Bruce Cheney, the most powerful vice president in the nation's history.

This sounds interesting. I'm a big Frontline fan... Where is that Tivo remote...

Frontline: The Dark Side | PBS