10 May 2007
Ana Marie Cox, aka “Wonkette”, was at last weekend’s MilBlog Conference and assured us all that she “got” the military and then asked if reporting positive things ignored by Legacy Media wasn’t “politicizing” the issue. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Murdoc at the time for a number of reasons, but then we get this about the Ft. Dix story:
Ok. So, the plot was: six dudes from New Jersey buy some guns and storm Fort Dix. The Fort Dix that is full of lots and lots of Army reservists with way, way more guns. And, like, extensive military training and shit. Yes, thank god these terrorists have been caught and locked up before they could be killed within minutes of deciding to carry out the dumbest fucking terrorist plot we’ve ever heard of.
Seems to Murdoc that A) she might be trying to make a wee bit of a political point here, and B) she obviously doesn’t “get” it when it comes to the usual situation on military bases.
It’s not like everyone is walking around in body armor with loaded M16s and air support a radio call away. C’mon. Weapons are usually secured (as in locked up) and ammunition generally isn’t issued. As far as I can tell, this is the standard procedure at Dix.
No, these bastards wouldn’t have been able to “take over” the base, and when the response arrived they would have been toast. But they would have probably been able to cause a fair number of casualties in the meantime.
Not terribly impressive commentary.
UPDATE: Pick of Cox at the MilBlog Conference via Pinch’s collection.
Scrolling through Wonkette (which Murdoc doesn’t frequent, to say the least) reveals that my conception of what a ‘big time’ professional blogger does is way off base…
UPDATE 3: Actually, I can’t tell for sure if this post was written by Cox or not. She’s moved on from Wonkette, only posting occasionally if I understand correctly. There’s no byline on post.
UPDATE 2: I read The terrorists next door? Fort Dix plot suspects lived quietly in N.J. suburb this morning on MSNBC.com.
This bit made me wonder:
The Dukas were living in America illegally, having entered two decades ago on now-expired visas. In almost every way, they were products of typical U.S. suburban life. Shain, 26, and Eljvir, 24, attended Cherry Hill West High School and often played soccer in their front yard.
I wondered A) Why did they rush right past the illegal bit and go right into explaining how they seemed like regular folks, and B) Where had they entered the US?
The answer to ‘B’ is:
The brothers entered the United States near Brownsville, Texas, in 1984, the source said, which would put their ages at 1 to 6 when they crossed the border.
The source said there is no record of them entering by way of a regular border crossing, so they are investigating whether they were smuggled into the country.
(via Malkin)
At least MSNBC.com decided to include this:
They were also no strangers to the police. Tatar and the Dukas were habitual offenders, stopped dozens of times a year for speeding, illegal passing and driving without a license. Dritan Duka pleaded guilty in 2000 to possession of drug paraphernalia and Shain Duka to possession of marijuana — low-level charges that at the time did not trigger immigration background checks.
Only one brother had a driver’s license, and only briefly. But they drove anyway and were ticketed regularly by Cherry Hill police — including four citations in one five-week period for Dritan Duka. The three had their driving privileges suspended — meaning they could not even apply for a license — 54 times in less than a decade.
William Kushina, a Cherry Hill Police Department spokesman, said the department could do nothing about serial unlicensed driving except continue to issue tickets and suspend privileges. “You can’t physically restrain a person from driving,” he said.
“You can’t physically restrain a person from driving“?!? WTF?
If only there were some place we could put such persons. You know. A place that had locked doors. Bars on the windows. That sort of thing.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Murdoc, Wasn’t it about 10 years or so ago when, (and I am going on very fuzzy memory here)some soldier took his rifle and opened fire on his command during an exercise stateside? 82nd Airborne maybe? He caused a number of casualties before he was taken out, iirc. Yeah, ALL weapons except for the MP’s are locked up in the armoury until being issued for training. They are cleaned and turned in afterwards. These six wouldn’e been able to do some serious badwork before they could be found, especially if they had split up and moved around a lot respects,
May 10th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
When 35% of Democrats (according to a recent Rasmussen poll) believe Bush had advance warning about 9/11, I’m not surprised at stuff like this.
May 10th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Harold saw a poll. Can you show us that poll, Harold? If you can, I’ll show you a recent Rasmussen poll that says 75% of Republicans are gay. Murdoc, mentioning that many people on army bases aren’t walking around armed and with flak jackets on and that most ammo is locked up is to pretend that there aren’t freaking armed people on army bases. Or little things like gates where heavily-armed people hang out and detection devices are situated. Are you trying to sell your readers - and yourself - the impression that six dudes could drive up to the gate at Fort Dix in a pizza delivery car loaded with weapons and say ‘We’re just delivering pizza! It’s all cool! Let us in.’ ? You’re playing a small game here Murdoc. Just admit it’s an overblown story and move on. I heard someone found a backpack in an REI sotre. Oh wait… usb
May 10th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Oh you’re going to hate this. Just a bit:
Unbelievable. And did Tatar really go on base delivering pizza? Seems unlikely given that the base does background checks that must be updated every 30 days - and you have him here as constantly in trouble with the law. usc
May 10th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Thom, look right here for those figures.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
You crack me up, Thom. The Vegas thing turned out to be overblown, but now this is overblown, too? Illegal aliens in trouble with the law plotting to attack a military base. But what’s to worry about? Sorta makes me wonder what it would take to be a serious story. Anyway, I’m also amused that troops in a war zone like Iraq who are on alert in a combat mindset, wearing body armor and helmets, riding in armored vehicles, carrying multiple loaded weapons and going nowhere alone are ’sitting ducks’ and ’sacrificial lambs’, but troops in a US garrison unarmed, unarmored, and relaxed are perfectly safe from wannabe terrorists with automatic weapons and the element of surprise. And I’m supposed to ‘move on’? I thought your initial criticism when you linked to my site was that I’d move on to something else. Here’s basically where I am on this: - Illegals constantly breaking laws weren’t dealt with - They were trying to put together a plan to attack US troops - They were caught - Some folks are running around claiming the warmongers are overblowing the threat while the folks making the claim are underblowing the threat I’ve written a number of times about how if, on September 10th 2001, we had arrested 19 specific Muslims we’d be hearing all about how the so-called plan to hijack airliners and kamikaze them into the World Trade Center was a stupid plan that could not possibly have worked and that it was just warmongering by somebody or other. This is just another example of why I continue to believe that. More than ever.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Where’s the link to the recent poll about 3/4 of Republicans being gay, Thom?
May 10th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Thom, I know from experience that once the gate guards get familiar with a face, especially one that’s delivering pizza several times a day to folks on base, that they just give a quick look and pass them through. You don’t need to put 6 guys in one vehicle. You could put one or two in each, and the weapons in the trunks. Arrive spaced out 10-15 minutes apart. The local pizza delivery trucks are usually onbase for 20-30 minutes at a time, delivering numerous orders to different barracks, duty offices, hangars, etc. I’ve SEEN how complacent MP’s and SP’s get regardless of whether it’s a war on or not. This sort of a plan has initial success written all over it, because they guards are familiar with the attackers already, see them every day. It’s complacency that gets people killed. Respects,
May 10th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Harold I was wrong you were right. I thought you were making it up, or heard it on the radio. I find it really hard to believe that 35% of Dems think that, and only 39% say they don’t believe it. You didn’t make it up, I was wrong. I also find it really hard to believe that 18% of Republicans believe that. And that only 57% will outright say they don’t believe it. ** Murdoc, do you get jokes ever? You thought I was serious about moving on to the backpack thing? Oy. And yes, Murdoc, this is an overblown story. Hugely and maniacally overblown by pant-wetting panic-junkies. These are the Keystone Terrorists, and using this story to fan the flames of fear and war is idiocy and immaturity of an embarrassing scale. Grow up. You might get hit by a car. Don’t be afraid of cars. You might get killed by citizen of the U.S. with a truck full of fertilizer. Don’t be afraid of U.S. citizens. Or trucks. Or fertilizer. Or any combination of three. Grow. Up. God almighty this pants-pissing fear is embarrassing to watch. usda
May 10th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
A patriot would be outraged that some psycho bastards were planning on even trying to kill our soldiers on base. Most of these soldiers are just kids themselves, and that’s not even considering the fact that many of those on base are women (often wives) with babies. These are people who are armed only with strollers and diaper wipes looking to buy food and essentials at the BX. A traitor would say, ‘what harm could these would-be-terrorists possibly do.’
May 10th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
AW1 Tim I suspect and suspected that familiarity of drivers could be the case - but a couple things jump out. We don’t have it confirmed that he drove on base yet, much less how often he did so. When we know more we can address that. And you can’t put two guys in three cars each if you only have one pizza delivery driver - which is all they’re claiming. Those are two points that make your conclusion near completely wrong, IMO. It’s a plan that looks ridiculous on its face. And please read the NYTimes story I linked to. There’s serious questions about how much the informant drove these guys toward action.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
DFens when you’e done with the Patriot Handbook send it over. Cuz my litlle ol’ brain needs help figuring out what to think.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Grow. Up. God almighty this pants-pissing fear is embarrassing to watch. That’s what I’m saying many would have said if we had managed to arrest the 9/11 hijackers on 9/10. A plot to hijack four airliners and crash them into things would have seemed ridiculous. Maybe they might have been caught because they had taken flying lessons but not asked to learn how to land. Some would have said that proved how these were the Keystone Hijackers and that there was no reason to worry about them. Meanwhile, you seem to be mistaking fear with respect for danger.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
…and that’s not even considering the fact that many of those on base are women (often wives) with babies. These are people who are armed only with strollers and diaper wipes looking to buy food and essentials at the BX. A traitor would say, ‘what harm could these would-be-terrorists possibly do.” And housing is normaly just inside the gates, personal weapons are not allowed in military housing on base, common area for pizza deliveries and terrorist (even amatures) like to go for soft targets like families… Reality.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Murdoc you’re climbing further and further out on your own tenuous limb. If ‘we’ had paid attention to those guys with the flight training and the plan - who in god’s name are you talking about? Are you an intelligence agent? Do your decisions about what stories to blog about affect what actual law enforcement people choose to pay attention to? Has your fantasy world completely annihilated reality? And it might be the appropriate time to tell you that people like that WERE being watched. And it was President Bush who didn’t take those exact warnings serious. I gotta stay away from here for a while. I feel like I’m in the political ward at Bellevue.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I’m an AF Reservist at McGuire (other side of the fence from Dix). From what I’ve seen when I am there, those six ding-dongs could have done the most damage by assaulting the Class VI and BX/PX!
May 10th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I’ll tell you one thing, none of the men on that base would have died with an entry wound in their back if these assholes had gotten that far. Leave it to the liberal censors to decide for us what is and is not acceptable to post or discuss.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Not only are our weapons secured in the armory while we are on the mainside of Fort Dix, ammo and personal weapons are forbidden. Dix may as well be gun-free VT once past the MP’s. She should at least ask somebody in the service before making these assumptions.
May 10th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
‘I feel like I’m in the political ward at Bellevue.’ Must be missing the old Soviet Union, eh comrade?
May 10th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
They should seriously rethink that ban on weapons on bases. The base I work on is the same way. I’d get fired if I showed up with a weapon, but I can design them, go figure.
May 10th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Which ‘tenuous limb’ am I climbing out on?
May 10th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
As gun free as VTech. Okay, you guys got me. Very funny. I get it, okay. This is a comedy site. Damn, I am so stupid…
May 10th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Thom: Out of curiosity, how many times have you been on Dix?
May 10th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Seriously, who gives a rat’s ass what Ana Marie Cox thinks about anything? That girl has had her head stuck so far up the ass of Washington D.C. for so long, I doubt she ‘gets’ anything that occurs outside the beltway. She doesn’t ‘get’ the military, any more than I understand the workings of all the rapacious SOBs that work in and around the Capitol.
May 10th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
75% of Republicans are gay? Thom, you say that like you think it’s a bad thing.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Thom, So I guess the real question is ‘How much is Wonkette paying you to comment here’? or do you just post this sort of drivel for free? You have obviously never been on a military base, and you seem to be toeing the NYT party line regarding this story. Gotta figure you for what you are. Amateur. Respects,
May 10th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Remember the USS Cole? I’ll bet the wonkette could have told the culprits the same thing. There is no way you can attack a line ship of the Navy given that it is bristling with missiles, radar, cannon, guns and a couple hundred sailors. An attack on a fort makes sense especially if the guys aren’t interested in surviving. As others have posted, weapons are stored in armories and live ammo is stored in a separate location. A soldier caught with even one m-16 round in his room can get an article 15. The same is true for personal weapons. After 6pm on most bases, soldiers are not even in uniform. Many go to the post’s movie theatre in their civies or go to the gym in their shorts. In addition, a lot of civilian dependents are also running around. Troops that might have their weapons issued are usually miles away from the main post in the field sleeping under the stars. Only a few MPs, acting like your local police force, drive around post making sure people aren’t speeding. If these guys were pizza deliverymen, then I could easily see them gaining access right up to the barracks. They could do some real damage especially if they wanted to die too.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
AW1 Tim Well that’s just disappointing. You made a good point and more respectfully than most on the tubes, and I made one back in kind. Then you take the low road. Too bad. Could you speak to the points I made? Particualrly that they couldn’t take three cars if they didn’t have three pizza drivers? It’s a fair point. My aunt was a Lt. Col. in the Air Force. Used to drink in the club at the SAC base in Omaha with her. Granted that was a pretty long time ago - but it answers your question.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Buckethead Is it bad thing. To some…
May 10th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
If these gus are pizza deliverymen…’ This is how unserious observation works.
May 10th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Posted by Thom ‘My aunt was a Lt. Col. in the Air Force. Used to drink in the club at the SAC base in Omaha with her. Granted that was a pretty long time ago - but it answers your question.’ ———————————————————— Wow. Your aunt was an Air Force O, and you used to drink with her at the club. A long time ago. Yea, that qualifies as being on a military post. I guess. As for the story being overblown, how the hell do you know what it is? Are you privy to some secret squirrel intelligence not available to the rest of us.
May 10th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Thom: Still curious: How many times have you been on Dix? Not to the O-club on Offutt or wherever you went with your aunt. Dix. I worked for several years on the Air Force Academy. I spent some time (as a civ, I’m not military) at Peterson AFB and Fort Carson. You don’t see me telling people who’ve been based at Dix what security at Dix is like, do you? We all understand that you think this plan was a bit far-fetched. I think everyone agrees that the wannabees weren’t exactly top-notch terrorists, but folks who’ve lived and worked at Dix and who’ve lived and worked at places like Dix seem to think it might have been trouble. I’m wondering why you think you know better, is all. How many times? Two? Three? A dozen?
May 10th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
AndyB: If these bozos had attacked the Class VI, the base command would have called in air strikes… Thom: Forgot to respond to this bit. About my comments on what I think the reaction to arrested 9/11 hijackers would have been, you wrote: And it might be the appropriate time to tell you that people like that WERE being watched. And it was President Bush who didn’t take those exact warnings serious. Sooooo, let me see if I’ve got things straight here. 9/11 guys were being watched and it’s apparently Bush’s fault we didn’t arrest them. I say if we had, there would have been all sorts of outcry about how silly their supposed plan was. THEN, the Ft. Dix guys were watched and then someone arrested them. You say their supposed plan was silly. It seems to me that you are very insistent about proving my point. What am I missing? And finally, which ‘tenuous limb’ am I climbing out on?
May 10th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
The comment following the ‘limb’ remark was the point. Read it again. And you’re being what can only appear to be deliberately obtuse about the ‘who’s being watched’ thing. Again: Are you in an intelligence unit? It’s not you doing the watching, no matter what fantasy you may have about that. And equally obtuse about whether or not I’ve been to Fort Dix. Of course I haven’t, and you obviously haven’t been either. Your pretending to not know whether or not I’ve been there exposes what you won’t admit: that it has nothing to do with it - or you would have said it earlier. Someone asked if I’ve ever been on a base. I answered it. For what it’s worth or not. And why haven’t you responded to the NYTimes story? And Jerry - don’t mention squirrels. I hate fucking squirrels. And x-ray machines. And DoD guards when I’m trying to deliver pizza, just to be fully honest. *** usl (and no, traitors, that does not stand for USama bin Laden)
May 11th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Uh, Thom, ‘we’ means ‘us’, as in the USA. Call me naive, but I like to believe we’re (We, us, USA, Americans, the Free World) on the same team. It’s like when my football team wins and I say ‘we beat them’. This may come as a shock to you, but when I say ‘we’ I don’t believe that I am a player on the team and I also believe that I’m truthful when I say ‘we’. Didn’t think that was so difficult. I can’t really explain it any simpler without crayons. There used to be a guy who liked to pretend that he didn’t know what I was talking about when I said ‘9/11′. He liked to say that lots of things happened on ‘9/11′ and if I wanted to have a serious discussion about national security, I needed to be more specific about which events on which 9/11 I was referring to, or he wouldn’t be able to know how to answer because he had no idea what I was talking about. At first I thought he was joking, but it turns out that he really meant it. He just couldn’t (wouldn’t) grasp that when I talked about ‘9/11′ that I meant ‘that one day when terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into things and killed people and stuff’. I think he thought it made him seem worldly or above such mundane things or something. Really, it just make him seem like a jackass. Is that why you don’t understand ‘we’? Because you’re above such concepts? As for why I wonder how many times you’ve been on Dix, I already explained exactly why I wanted to know and I think it was a valid point. So you haven’t been there. You realize how dumb you look when you argue about the place with people who have, right? You understand that? They know firsthand. You don’t. That’s why I asked. You can pretend it doesn’t matter if it makes you feel better, I guess. Like when you thought Hutchison was making up that Rassmussen poll, but really it was just you making up stuff. Hutchison was right because he had some facts and you had squat and everyone knew it. You didn’t know it at first, for sure, but eventually you figured it out. It’s sort of like that, except with security at Dix. And which NYT story? The one about entrapment? Suuurrrre these poor guys were entrapped. Mean FBI or whoever guys planted the idea into their heads about attacking US troops and mean FBI or whoever guys egged them on against their will and mean FBI or whoever guys are to blame, not the illegal aliens who were constantly in trouble with the law and wanted to attack US troops. Did the mean FBI or whoever guys entrap them into staying in the US illegally? I’m positive that if we had arrested the 9/11 hijackers on 9/10 one of the main defenses would have been ‘entrapment’. Maybe there isn’t a case against these guys. I guess we’ll find out. It’s very heartwarming that you’re ready to assume that the FBI or whoever is at fault. I’m guessing that you might have possibly felt the same way about the 9/11 hijackers if they had been arrested on 9/10. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about that, but it’s a favorite of mine and you haven’t really responded other than to say that I’m not an intelligence agent. (Which you don’t know firsthand one way or the other, by the way, and I do. But I’ll let you keep arguing that if you want.) I gotta say I’m a bit flabbergasted by the ‘whole you don’t understand ‘we” thing. For all our very obvious differences, I guess I wouldn’t have thought we were really on different sides. Maybe I’m wrong.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:17 am
‘My aunt was a Lt. Col. in the Air Force………..Granted that was a pretty long time ago…..’ What’d she fly Thom, a Folker, tri-plane? Her name wasn’t SNOOPY by any chance, was it?
May 11th, 2007 at 8:29 am
I’ve been to Fort Dix many times for Drill Weekends and several AT’s. Last summer I was there for 2 weeks supporting a Scout class so I lived in a barracks the whole time. Walk into any barracks at Fort Dix (at least before last week) and there are dozens of menus for Pizza and Chinese Restaurants by the door. They will deliver your order right to your barracks - just give them the building number - which means they know the base far better than most of the soldiers and airmen there. I won’t rate security by base for the benefit of our terrorist readers - I will say, in my experience, that Dix falls in the middle security-wise.
May 11th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Are you dense? This conversation started because you posted about my post about RW bloggers. Don’t try to hide behind the big ‘We’ now. That’s just prissy. If you want to change the subject at least give a guy a warning. Should the big ‘WE’ America go check out credible threats? Yes. But, again, you’re not the one doing the checking, you’re a blogger, and that was what my post was about. Christ. And don’t put on the self-righteous robes, you sound like an idiot. I have no idea what happened, we’re reading news reports and I added that one in for perspective. That story isn’t them crying ‘entrapment,’ by the way, it’s a newspaper story. They haven’t said anything yet. Pay attention. And you, someone who hasn’t been to Dix, who made a post about Dix - are lecturing me? God. You have one rosy set of never-reflective sunglasses, don’t ya? I’m not arguing with anybody who’s been there - there’s been one guy who said he’s stationed across the street and has been inside and another, Bram, who said this:
That doesn’t speak at all to what I’ve said and I won’t argue with the guy about that. My point and I know you heard it is the gate. Guarded by ‘heavily-armed’ guards and equipped with x-ray equipment. It hardly manners if Pfc. Jones is in his underwear with no weapon in his barracks if the guys can’t make it through the gate. (Now Bram’s back again. You can order pizza there. Geat. Good to know. I won’t argue with him about that.) And I say that these bozos - who are so brilliant that they took their frigin’ VHS tape of the ‘terrorist traing video’ to a STORE to get it made into a CD. Holy freaking shit. These guys wouldn’t have made it past the the gate of a Lincoln Log home. But you keep wanting to scream like a girl about em. I just don’t get it. The poll thing? I was wrong and admitted it immediately. There’s not a person here who’s come close and there’s been plenty wrong - like with the ‘3 or 4 cars with 2 guys each.’ I think it’s one of the basic problems here: I doubt you could admit to me you were wrong or even just mistaken about anything, even if you knew you were. And you really impressed yourself with the ‘we’ thing, didn’t you, coming back and finishing up with it like that and all. Sorry. It’s just you hiding again. And do you pay that toejam guy to come here? Cuz that is comedy GOLD!!! ‘Snoopy” Oh man, I nearly lost my suspenders on that one! Awesome! us, eh?
May 11th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Pizza boy Tartar.
What?
May 11th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18601345/ In case that last link didn’t work.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Thom, all I can say is *PLEASE* keep coming back here. We miss Mystery Poster and Aaron, who used to fill that niche…
May 11th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
[Public Address]: Meltdown on Aisle Seven!
May 11th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Thom, I am really trying to understand why you are so upset. Is your point that ‘these bozos’ might have killed just one or very few people before they would have been killed themselves? And that this is not a significant threat (people die all the time for all kinds of reasons) and therefore we (the Murdocean we) shouldn-
May 11th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Don’t cover this story too, Murdoc, because the liberals won’t like it. Any reference to terrorism, and especially Muslim terrorism is strictly forbidden by the liberal thought police. Oh, and don’t even think about buying a gun to protect yourself. Everyone knows the 2nd ammendment is just a facist plot led by George Bush or one of his relatives.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
The 9/11 terrorists were not outliers. They represented an ideology shared by at least thousands. Why do you say that, after all their Mickey Mouse ripoff seems so peaceful. After all, the little children recite cute little poems like this on his show: ‘Oh Jerusalem, we are coming– Oh Jerusalem, we will never surrender to the enemy, We will never be humiliated, It is beloved Palestine that taught us what to be And taught us to be the soldiers of the Lord of the Worlds We will destroy the chair of the despots, so they will taste the flame of death. We will lead a war.’ Isn’t that sweet?
May 11th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
With all the vitriol and ambiguous horse manure that thom is spewing forth, its a miracle no one has ‘flamed’ him any worse than they have. Although I really didn’t think the ‘Snoopy’ crack was all that funny, it must have it a nerve with poor ol’ thom. From personal experiance with Offutt AFB back when it was still SAC, I’ll just bet my pet cats whiskers that thom or his aunt weren’t sipping tea in the O-club with a personal sidearm strapped to their waist. (or DID you, and spent a little quality time in the stockade? ‘Cause that’s sure what would have happened.) But of course, ‘we’re’ just quoting what we KNOW, not what we feel. (couldn’t resist the ‘we’ used in proper gramatic context) And how generous of thom to concede that you CAN order pizza and have it delivered on base. (’course, I can only comment about Offutt….and Shaw in SC…..and Holloman in NM.) But I’ve yet to see an x-ray machine at Offett’s front gate (was just there this last weekend for the airshow, and all they did for extra security was ask that you didn’t use a bag or backback: just carry your water or camera in the open. WOW, your right, nobody could EVER get past that!). But the icing on this little seven layer pile is the statement, and I quote: ‘…who are so brilliant that they took their frigin’ VHS tape of the ‘terrorist traing video’ to a STORE to get it made into a CD. Holy freaking shit. These guys wouldn’t have made it past the the gate of a Lincoln Log home.’ Yep…..and if the mail had been a bit quicker, maybe the ‘frigin’ VHS tape’ made by the poor, misunderstood gunman in Vermont sent to NBC might now be looked at as just a statement from a wacko…..oh wait, it is. I agree that the ‘terrorist trai(n)ing vidio’ wasn’t a particularly bright move, but you’re being a little naive if you think that a bonehead mistake means they couldn’t have pulled it off. You don’t have to be a mental giant to pretent you belong where you shouldn’t be….just takes brass ones. I guess the point being made by thom is that, since these guys really weren’t rocket scientists, then ‘we’ (that pesky word again), should just all forget about it and go back to blinkers and blindfolds: if I don’t see it, then it isn’t real. (you know, just a fake plot by the Bush/Haliburton mafia to continue an illegal war for oil……or some such cow flop) What a wonderful, wonderful world you must live in thom.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Who’s upset? I’m here for the comedy. WF My point about the bozos is a side point to my original one - read the post that Murdoc linked to. The incessant need to link to anything that might maybe could be ‘TERRORISM!!!’ is obsessive and weird and comes across as hopeful. You almost hate to say it because you don’t want to think that anyone could be hopeful for such horror - but it comes across as that way. To me. it’s an observation. And you miss the point completely, and Murdoc does too or just can’t or won’t go there: I’m not talking about what investigators hould do, I’m talking about what bloggers do. why is that so hard to get? The fact that the guys seem to be first class bozos only makes the pant-wetting screamers seem more ridiculous. The guy at Circuit City should have reported the video; the Feds should have investigated; they should have gotten informants in there; they should do their good jobs and determine if there’s a threat and stop it and make bad people go to prison. Bloggers like Murdoc may think he’s the one doing that. He’s not. He’s blogging about it. And edward that’s just dumb. If CNN had gotten the DVDs, not VHS tapes, they would have and should have reported it. Even that psycopath wasn’t stupid enough to go get them duplicted at a Circuit City. could the bozos have done harm? Anyone with an AK-47 can. Of course. Knowing th e difference between an actual huge threat and a tiny one is irrelevant? Tell that to the DHS. It’s almost like you guys are sticking up for these bozos. What’s up with that?
May 11th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
It’s almost like you guys are sticking up for these bozos.’ Heh, yeah, that’s sure what *I* get when reading these comments! Man, this is good stuff!
May 11th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Here’s what Thom posted: ‘Are you dense? This conversation started because you posted about my post about RW bloggers. Don’t try to hide behind the big ‘We’ now. That’s just prissy…’ And this is all I heard after ‘prissy’… Blah Blah Blah Blah, Blah Blah, Blah Blah Blah, Blah Blah Blah Blah… Thom, the day may come when you’re in a mall, or perhaps a loved one or somebody you know is in some other public place, and a squad sized element is going to be moving and shooting anybody and everybody in sight. And when the smoke has cleared and the dust settled, we’ll discover that they’ve been planning this for some time. And that they are linked to a terrorist cell. And guys like yourself will be asking ‘well, why didn’t somebody stop them?!’ or ‘Why didn’t anybody know about this?!’ You, of course, won’t be asking that question. Because to link an action after the fact to terrorism would be too ‘obsessive’.
May 11th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
They’ll only be able to hit him in the ass because his head will be in the sand (I’m not saying anything about size here).
May 11th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Hi guys did I miss anything?
May 11th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Jerry, thanks for the fantasy. I’m sure it’s shared by many. I may very well be in such a situation, here or overseas. The difference between you and I is that I’m not going to let it ruin my life by turning me into a crybaby who needs a codpiece-wearing father figure or a violence-loving fool. The world is what it is. It’s dangerous in lots of ways and we do what we can to make it safer. Again: I’m glad they got that tip and investigated it and I’m glad that nobody got hurt or killed. Even you. Life goes on now. Aber jetzt Deutschland!… uszzzzzzzzzzzzz…
May 11th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
It’s almost like you guys are sticking up for these bozos. What’s up with that?’ (sticking UP for them….just how much medication are you on, anyway?) Thom, you ARE on the same planet as the rest of us, right? And we are talking about the same six that all the news media is calling terrorists, that ADMITTED they were planning a terrorist act, right? The same six that made a VIDEO regarding said plan, right? And yet you made this comment: ‘The incessant need to link to anything that might maybe could be ‘TERRORISM!!!’ is obsessive and weird and comes across as hopeful.’ Earth to thom….. Hello?…..
May 11th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
codpiece-wearing father figure…..’ oh brother, what decade are you living in anyway.
May 11th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
codpiece-wearing father figure’ Can you *SERIOUSLY* say something like that without following it up with a statement about ‘bathing in the moisture of the President’s soiled and blood-soaked underwear’? I hear that’s what the intellectuals are using *APT* metaphors these days. I mean, if you’re going to DO IT, do it right. Stephen Colbert would eat you for breakfast! Here’s to hoping you continue to pull metaphors like that out for YEARS to come here at MO!
May 11th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
I can say something like that, KTLA. I just did. My gut told me to say that. And I prefer just ‘codpiece-wearing father figure.’ It’s economical. And about the comparison to Colbert: Stop the gushing! It’s embarassing already. I get it - you like me. And I forgot I had to dumb it down. Sorry. I mean ’sticking up for them’ as in you’re arguing with me that they’re not buffoons. WTF? Do you want them to be expert terrorists? Do you want to compliment them? Why not mock them? It’s fun. It’s American. We laugh at bad guys, remember?
May 11th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
May 11th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Wow. I usually only get this many comments if we’re talking about battleships…
May 11th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Okay, you’re right, KTLA. I’ll try harder. i just don’t like to think about George’s soled underwear. Call me squeamish. And your welcome, Murdoc. I do feel I’ve been distracting you from your other duties here. I apologize for that. But they begged me to stay. Something about Aaron. And I do get the biblical reference. I hear that all the time.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Thom, There is something to be said for keeping a sense of proportion when dealing with risk. Drugs that were benefiting many tens of thousands of sick people have been banned because of slim evidence that under very specific circumstances they might have lethal side effects. That kind of hysteria causes massive damage to the companies involved and we lose a sure benefit in order to avoid a possibly nonexistent, but certainly small risk. It is simply unrealistic to waste billions in order to save perhaps half a dozen people, but we do it all too often. I am glad that since you are such a coldly rational and hardheaded guy you agree with me. But when it comes to jihadi terrorism, things are a bit different. First, jihadism has no benefits whatsoever, although this may not be self-evident to a guy who links to Michael Moore on his blog. The risk is hard to nail down, but it is potentially big. We are not talking about side effects or things that are statistically bound to happen anyway. There is intent. We know for sure that there is intent to do harm on a scale of Bali and New York. What is uncertain is the capability. Twenty failed or small-scale attacks tell us very little about the success or scale of the twenty first. You may be willing to bet the farm (or someone else-
May 12th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Take your meds Thom. You’ll feel better. Really. When I start seeing the words ‘prissy’ and ‘cod piece wearing figure father’ used in a sentence, I know it’s time to bow out.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Murdoc, I thought you banned the word the described heavily armed and armored sea going craft with 16 inch guns from your site.