The Commentariat -- April 19, 2013
Nedra Pickler of the AP: "Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Barack Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons."
Katharine Seelye & Michael Cooper of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. released still and video images of two men whom they characterized as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings on Thursday evening and asked for the public's help in identifying them. One of the men was captured on video setting down a backpack at the site of the second explosion, said Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Boston field office."
Suspects 1 & 2.
Two images of Suspect 2.More photos on Boston Globe liveblog, beginning at 5:26 pm. ...
"If you have visual images, video, and/or details regarding the explosions along the Boston Marathon route and elsewhere, submit them on https://bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov/ No piece of information or detail is too small. You can also call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) prompt #3, with information." -- FBI Website
... Update: the FBI site now has high-res versions of the photos. You can access them here.
... The related surveillance video:
... Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: "It didn't take long for a lawmaker to pick up the latest right-wing conspiracy theory about the Boston Marathon bombings. Just hours after controversial terrorism expert Steve Emerson reported last night on Sean Hannity's show that unnamed 'sources' told him the government was quietly deporting the Saudi national who was initially suspected in the bombing, South Carolina GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan grilled Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the rumor at a hearing this morning." Here's how the exchange ended:
Duncan: Wouldn't you agree with me that it's negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing?
Napolitano: I am not going to answer that question, it is so full of misstatements and misapprehensions that it's just not worthy of an answer.
... Like that idiot Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) who thought he outsmarted Energy Secretary & physicist Steven Chu, Duncan is so dumb he thought he got the best of Napolitano & proudly posted to his Website video of his "questioning" of Napolitano:
... Bag Men! Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "Move over, CNN -- The New York Post wants to reclaim its spot as the most unreliable source of information in America.... Even though they [admitted they] had no idea their front page was accurate, The Post decided to run with it anyway. I guess they figured the photo told a great story, whether or not there was any evidence connecting it with the bombing. Two guys with bags, one of whom looks like he might even be of Middle Eastern ancestry? Print it! It would be irresponsible not to! Of course, the real story isn't what The Post was hoping":
... Shahriar Rahmanzadeh, et al., of ABC News: "The teenage boy authorities once investigated as possibly being connected to the Boston Marathon bombing told ABC News today he was shocked to see his face pop up on television and all over social media. Salah Barhoun, 17, said he went to the police yesterday to clear his name after he found himself tagged in pictures online." ...
... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "It's hard to express how massive a fail this is -- but it's surpassed by the even more massive fail of the right wing blogs, who universally jumped all over the Post's latest fake story even though they were just burned by the last fake story." ...
... "The Boston Bombing Witch Hunt Bags Another Innocent Kid." Barry Petchesky of Deadspin: "On Monday, the New York Post doggedly stuck to its claim that 12 were killed in the Boston Marathon bombings. On Tuesday, CNN (among others) reported that a suspect had been arrested, before walking that all the way back. Today [Thursday], the Post wrests back the 'what the fuck are you doing?' crown by putting two 'potential suspects' on the cover of the newspaper.... But maybe there was a reason for them to be at the marathon, wearing track jackets and carrying bags: they're runners."
Alina Selyukh of Reuters: "The House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday designed to help companies and the government share information on cyber threats, though concerns linger about the amount of protection the bill offers for private information.... The bill drew support from House Democrats, passing on a bipartisan vote of 288-127, although the White House repeated its veto threat on Tuesday if further civil liberties protections are not added." ...
... Republicans, who have been howling like banshees about privacy issues surrounding the relatively small (but potentially dangerous) number of Americans purchasing guns, are completely unconcerned about a bill that puts every American's expectation of a certain level of privacy right in the dumpster. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's Comments ...
... ** How Our "Public Servants" Become Multi-Millionaires. Tech Dirt: "It would appear that Rep. Mike Rogers, the main person in Congress pushing for CISPA, has kept rather quiet about a very direct conflict of interest that calls into serious question the entire bill. It would appear that Rogers' wife stands to benefit quite a lot from the passage of CISPA, and has helped in the push to get the bill passed." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Chamber of Ironies
(1) Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "All that remained of a broad package of measures representing the most serious changes to the nation's gun laws in 20 years were two amendments: one that would address mental health care, and another that would penalize states that divulge information about gun owners except under very specific circumstances like a criminal investigation. Both passed overwhelmingly, the only two gun-related measures to clear the Senate's 60-vote threshold for passage. The vote on the amendments has no practical effect, since the underlying legislation has no immediate prospect of passing. Despite the push from proponents of stricter gun regulations, the amendments that received the most support in two days of voting were not the ones that tightened restrictions on weapons purchases, but the ones that loosened them. Fifty-seven senators voted on Wednesday to essentially nullify state laws that prohibit carrying concealed weapons. Fifty-six senators voted to restore gun ownership rights to veterans who have had them taken away."
(2) Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "'Shame on you!' shouted ... Lori Haas from the Senate gallery after ... [the Senate] refused to impose any new restrictions on gun ownership.... Haas's ... daughter Emily ... survived two bullet wounds to the head during the Virginia Tech massacre.... She and Patricia Maisch -- who also shouted 'Shame on you' but is better known as the hero who knocked a high-capacity magazine out of [Jared Lee] Loughner's hands before he could kill more people in Tucson -- were escorted out of the Senate gallery by Capitol Police. 'They detained us for about an hour and a half,' said Haas.... They had to turn over their IDs and wait. For what? A background check." ...
... Greg Sargent: New Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R) takes hits from the state's largest paper -- the Arizona Republic -- from Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly -- and from Patricia Maisch -- for his "no" vote on the Manchin-Toomey amendment. ...
... CW: there's this, too:
Our own Sen. Marco Rubio keeps harping that the culture of violence must be changed, but he refuses to see the practicality of instant background checks that have, indeed, turned away scores of criminals from buying guns legally at stores. He voted No. Shameful. Right here in Miami we are witnessing a spike in gun violence, especially in poor neighborhoods. Where are those guns coming from? -- Miami Herald Editors
... Nate Silver does a statistical analysis -- natch! -- on why the Senators voted as they did on Manchin-Toomey. Worst Senator Award: Heidi Heitkamp. ...
... CW: I accidentally clicked on this New York Times story by Peter Applebome about Newtown, Connecticut, & its role in gun safety legislation. If you want to know how the NRA is winning, it's by convincing people that this is an accurate depiction of the ideological divide: '"The antigun sentiment is at a height because of the tremendous amount of emotion associated with it, but there's probably the same percentage of people who are in favor of the Second Amendment as those who are in favor of these stringent laws," said Daniel Cruson, the town historian. He puts himself in that first camp." That's pretty obvious. ...
... AND Dylan Byers of Politico is very, very upset about media bias against criminals & crazy people who purchase guns & ammo: "Even by the standards of today's partisan media environment, the response has been noteworthy. Television hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan, while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them directly." CW: Wow! Even editorial boards! whose, um, job it is to express opinions. Just not gun safety opinions, I guess.
Another Reason to Be Glad Krugman Has a Job at the New York Times. His column today: "...the Reinhart-Rogoff fiasco needs to be seen in the broader context of austerity mania: the obviously intense desire of policy makers, politicians and pundits across the Western world to turn their backs on the unemployed and instead use the economic crisis as an excuse to slash social programs. What the Reinhart-Rogoff affair shows is the extent to which austerity has been sold on false pretenses. For three years, the turn to austerity has been presented not as a choice but as a necessity. Economic research, austerity advocates insisted, showed that terrible things happen once debt exceeds 90 percent of G.D.P. But 'economic research' showed no such thing; a couple of economists made that assertion, while many others disagreed.... So will toppling Reinhart-Rogoff from its pedestal change anything? ... I predict that the usual suspects will just find another dubious piece of economic analysis to canonize, and the depression will go on and on."
Obama 2.0. Matthew Wald of the New York Times: "The Senate energy committee formally approved the nomination of Ernest J. Moniz to be energy secretary, the committee announced on Thursday. The 21-to-1 vote is an indication that Mr. Moniz, who served as an undersecretary in the Energy Department in the Clinton administration, will have no trouble being confirmed by the full Senate. Some opponents had complained that an energy initiative he leads at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is financed heavily by the oil industry and other conventional energy industries." ...
... Obama 2.0 Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: "Responding to sharp criticism from Republicans for his work on housing discrimination and voting rights at the Justice Department, Thomas E. Perez, President Obama's choice to head the Labor Department, on Thursday defended his record and said that if confirmed, his focus would be on tackling the nation's high unemployment rate."
News Ledes
ABC News: "At least 13 people, including firefighters and emergency medical workers, were killed and about 200 more injured in the massive explosion and fire at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, according to officials. The number of deaths and injuries could still grow as search and recovery efforts continue at the site of the plant, the Texas Department of Public Safety said." ...
... NBC News Update: "While the death toll from a horrific fertilizer plant explosion was raised to 14 Friday, after two additional bodies were found...."
... Washington Times: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he is declaring McLennan County a disaster area and calling for federal relief from President Obama in the wake of a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed up to 15 people and injured scores more.... Mr. Obama called the governor from Air Force One en route to Massachusetts.... 'We greatly appreciate his call and his gracious offer of support, of course, and the very quick turnaround of the emergency declaration that will be forthcoming and his offer of prayers,' Mr. Perry said."
The Hill: "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moved close to lifting the three-month grounding of the Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' airplane Friday by approving a redesign of the aircraft's lithium battery. U.S. airlines have been banned from flying the Boeing 787 on commercial flights since January, after a string of incidents in which the plane's lithium-ion batteries nearly caught fire."
Reuters: "Pakistani police took former president Pervez Musharraf into custody at their Islamabad headquarters on Friday, hours after a court had ordered him placed under house arrest, Musharraf's spokesman said. Mohammed Amjad said police had escorted the former army chief from his residence on the edge of the capital to a guest house at the city's police headquarters where he will spend two days on remand ahead of a court hearing."
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Reader Comments (7)
So I took the main image into photoshop and blew it up. Yep, both of these characters seem to have brown faces. But... lookie, lookie at the hands of the second guy--lily white. Front guy's hands are in his pockets; wonder if they're white, too....
Then looking at the secondary pictures, I see I was mistaken about the brown faces. Does this mean I'm disqualified for a job at CNN?
I don't have a pack identical to the ones carried by the suspects but I do have an old climbing sac which I load with a few books and a 22 lb dumbbell for a hike up the local hill for exercise. It does not hang like the packs in the videos which don't look to me to contain anything as bulky as a 6l pressure cooker. especially one containing 20lb of explosives and shrapnell. Perhaps the networks might try a little restraint. This reminds me of Atlanta.
@James Singer. Can't really tell about Suspect No. 1, but I think Suspect No. 2 looks Semitic in the close-ups -- or Italian or Greek.
Making judgments before you have all the facts makes you highly qualified for a job at CNN. Practice up on that newsman's fake cadence; you'll be on the air soon, breaking false stories with the rest of 'em.
Marie
@cowichan. That was my thought, too. A six-liter pressure-cooker would hold the equivalent of three of those big ol' soft-drink bottles. But because pressure-cookers have heavy tops & pretty substantial sides, and because they are round, one pressure-cooker is considerably bulkier, than three big soft-drink bottles.
I think the backpack Suspect No. 2 is carrying might contain something that big, but the backpack of Suspect No. 1 seems too flat & flabby to contain a round 6-liter pressure-cooker, even though it appears to be a very large backpack that covers most of the suspect's back.
What I wonder is this -- the suspects were in a cordoned-off area. The police & other first responders had to to tear down the fence to get in to help the victims. Weren't there metal detectors at the entrances? What's the point of having a "safe" area if authorities aren't checking what's in the packs everybody is carrying? If there were metal detectors, then the bombers -- whoever they were -- must have got their stuff in some other way. Anybody have any ideas on this?
Marie
I wonder where these hooligans got their guns?
But I guess investigating that would infringe on their FREEDOM.
@CW Yes. I, too, wondered HOW a 6-litre pressure cooker could fit and look in a backpack.
Checked out several 6 liter/6 quart pressure cookers and came across one model of that size without a long handle.
It is compact, approx. 9.5" in diameter and a bit higher. The sort of thing that would likely fit easily into the expandable backpacks...though, the weight of the deadly contents along with the detention devices makes one think all this would be quite heavy & awkward, yet the suspects appeared to walk swiftly and without strain in the video.
... this horrow continues to unfold as I watch & read of this morning's mass transit shutdown in the Boston area.