My heart today goes out to the Pakistani people. I hope and pray that all those responsible for the heinous crime that has been committed today will be brought to justice.

Good journey, Benazir Bhutto. Good journey.

A 27-year-old man from Ethiopia was arraigned today at East Boston District Court on a charge that he made a false threat to "blow things up" at Logan International Airport. Ermiyaf A. Asfaw, a taxi driver who lives in Washington, D.C., walked up to an AirTran check-in counter Saturday night and was asked by an agent why he had stickers on his luggage from Dubai. Asfaw responded that he had been there. The agent asked, "Were you there on business or pleasure?" According to prosecutors, Asfaw responded: "No. I'm Al Qaeda. I'm with them, and I'm here to blow things up." The agent responded that his statement was not funny and was against the law. Asfaw laughed, prosecutors said, and walked away from the counter. The ticket agent alerted a supervisor, who notified State Police. full story

What is it about Boston that attracts this special brand of idiocy? Sure, maybe the agent's questions were invasive, but I knew when I was 6 not to joke about bombs at an airport. They take these things very seriously. This is not some new post-911 thing, this is the way it's been as long as there has been high traffic commercial airports.

The Bush administration has decided it has too much credibility and is planning on listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization based on classified "irrefutable evidence" that they've been supplying the Taliban - the first time an organization controlled by a foreign government has been listed as such. The evidence is irrefutable, no one can refute it if they can't see it. Even so, it still seems unlikely that Iran would be supplying weapons to a group they've consistently and openly opposed throughout the 90's up to today. Even the U.S. backed Afghan government of Hamid Karzai rejects the idea that Iran is supplying the Taliban.

There is still the classified evidence that Iran is supplying the Iraqi insurgents. More irrefutable stuff no one can see. At the very least, Iran is interfering in Iraqi affairs and as Paul Wolfowitz stated so eloquently a few months after the fall of Baghdad, "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq". I guess Americans don't count as foreigners in Iraq.

Bush and his cronies like to claim Reagan's legacy. Bush is no Reagan. Bush sent 10,000 troops to Afghanistan (gradually increased to a now 25,000) to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban. A year and a half later, he sent 100,000 troops to Iraq (gradually increased to a now 150,000) to fight a tin-pot dictator who was neither a tangible military threat to the United States nor involved in the September 11^th attacks at all.

If Ronald Reagan were in office, after September 11^th he would have sent those 175,000 troops to Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden's head would have been sitting on a pike in front of the White House by the end 2001. He would have rhetorically asked "Anyone else?" and brought the troops home. The war in Afghanistan would be long over and the war in Iraq would never have started.

I've been very impressed by how many Boston area liberals have gained a sense of rebellion in recent days by rallying around mega corporation Turner and their corporate lackeys who planted the devices. It's almost surreal that commercial culture has taken such a grip that even rebellion against authority has a corporate edge. None of the myriad of REAL abuses of authority since 9/11 have garnered such a tremendous response. Fail to give a favored marketing firm free reign to do whatever they please in the city, especially if they're advertising an important cartoon network show, and you have a massive outcry.

A lot of people seem to think the response to the Mooninite devices was overblown and paranoid. While I certainly agree that a lot of the post-9/11 security in the United States has been based on paranoia, I find it completely reasonable to treat strange unknown electronic devices attached to supports for overhanging highways with a high degree of suspicion.

found through recoiling:

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly. The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us." Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans." At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America. "I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland ... "Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous." ... Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification. full article

39% percent is a scary number. The Nazi Party never got 39% of the German vote before Hitler became Chancellor. In fact, in the election just prior to his becoming Chancellor, the Nazi Party received only 31% of the vote. The 39% of the American public supporting the marking and separation of Muslims does not necessarily mean we will have a repeat of the Nazi atrocities, but it does mean that we are closer to the edge of that precipice than we'd like to believe.

We all know the September 11^th attacks were a great tragedy and none of the victims deserved to die. After the disaster, the victim's family (excluding same-sex partners) were given large sums of money in "compensation". Unlike in the aftermath of Katrina, no one was snooping around to see if these families were "wasting" their money on "inappropriate" things such as clothing they shouldn't have.

There was not a move to pinch pennies in the recovery effort. Nobody freaked out if they so much as heard a rumor from someone who knew someone who was a Katrina victim who bought nice clothing are jewelery.

The World Trade Center had been attacked before September 11^th, yet no one blamed the victims for working in a known target and rightly so. Why then are the Katrina victims blamed so much for what happened to them?

Why are the Katrina victims so much less deserving than the victims of September 11^th? There are two obvious differences in the demographics groups of people: race and wealth. It's pretty obvious that both have played a role.

I thought that I could not be any more disgusted by the Bush administration, but his response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon has proved me wrong. While the numbers killed vary widely depending on what source you use, but by any count the vast majority of the Israelis killed by the Hizbullah "terrorists" have been soldiers while the vast majority of those killed by Israel have been civilians. The word "terrorist" has become a term simply meaning "Muslim enemy", it no longer has any connection whatsoever to action.

As if on cue, Bush is rolling out the 9/11 bandwagon, that somehow a Southern Lebanese resistance movement is responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center. Bush cannot be a peace broker, he is only interested in lies and war.

According to BushCo anything Israel does is okay. Anything. They can murder and bomb and kidnap and hold hostages and assassinate anyone they deem appropriate. No condemnation ever. However, if a group of Palestinians kidnap a soldier, a soldier and not a civilian, it is terrorism. It is proof of every muslim is evil, and every non-US supporting country supports terrorism and probably was behind the 9/11 plot just like Saddam Hussein wasn't. Bush can't condemn Israel of course, Israel's actions in Gaza and Lebanon follow the same sort of "logic" he used to attack Iraq. He can't condemn the Israeli government's actions without condemn the actions of the United States.

I talk a lot about why United States foreign policy sucks, and why Bush is evil and just pissing everyone off around the globe. However, Bush isn't the only one pissing the world off. Al Qaeda and associated Islamic extremist groups are doing just as good a job at getting everyone to hate them as Bush is. Al Qaeda isn't just against the United States. Al Qaeda isn't just against the West. As today horrendous bombings in Mumbai reiterate, al Qaeda is against the world. Not only are all non-muslins their enemy, many muslins are as well. One of Bush's key failures has been not treating al Qaeda as a world problem that requires a world solution. Instead of concentrating on stopping terrorists, Bush and Company have turned the "war on terror" into an excuse to further U.S. imperialism. The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend; and no one, not Bush, not al Qaeda, can take on the world.

The recent bust of a large terrorist cell in Ontario is being used as "proof" that the United States government needs to further crack down on security and become even more invasive. However, it actually proves just the opposite. While Canada's legal system might not be perfect in regards to civil liberties, Canada does not have anything as Orwellian as the PATRIOT Act. Yet, Canadian law enforcement was still able to break apart a major terrorist plot. The bust shows that civil liberties do not have to be sacrificed to combat terrorism.

Poll #742031
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which of the following do you think has a high likelihood of occurring on Tuesday (06/06/06)?

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life. The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda. ... According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval. Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation. The following month, 16 Rwandan religious leaders arrived in Orange County to begin religious training at Saddleback Church. Mr. Warren has said that his global initiative was developed "underground" and in "stealth". Presumably, this was done with the assistance of Mr. Carver, who directs the Purpose Driven Church in all its activities outside North America. full article

I hear time and time again the Islam is the religion of violence. Islam is the religion that endangers the world. The only reason the fundamentalist Christians have not resorted to terrorism more then they have (and, yes there have been plenty of terrorist attacks by fundamentalist Christians) is that they often have access to more "acceptable" avenues to pursue their agenda, as carpet bombing civilian populations with white phosphorus is deemed more acceptable than a suicide attack. If fundamentalist Christians lose their political prestige you can expect a series of terrorist attacks from their ranks. "Last Days Crusade" would be a likely organizational name.

I'm not saying all Christian are violent, the same as not all Muslims are violent. What I am saying is that Christianity holds no moral high ground over Islam. Both have factions that want to kill all the infidels. Fundamentalism is the problem, not any particular religion.

I've heard a lot of talk around about the hatefulness of Zacarias Moussaoui's testimony at his death penalty trial. It angers and upsets many Americans, especially families of the September 11 victims. And rightfully so.

Us Americans, however, should turn that mirror on ourselves and see that the often equally hateful rhetoric spewed by American politicians and media personalities and even web critics might make people in the Arab world react similarly to how we react to Moussaoui, especially given the orders of magnitude more civilians that have died as a result of the Iraq conflict than died in the September 11 attacks.

Perhaps us Americans should reflect about ourselves what one CNN talking head did about Zacarias Moussaoui, "What motivates such hatred?". The cycle of violence must end. Blood for blood only leads to blood for the blood that was taken for blood.

11 Congressional Republicans (no Democrats) authored the Congressional Report on Katrina entitled "Failure of Initiative". Here are some of the highlights:

"Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare" "Katrina was a failure of initiative" "Chertoff executed his responsibilities late, ineffectively, or not at all." "a litany of mistakes, misjudgments, lapses and absurdities all cascading together, hobbling any collective effort to respond." “We are left scratching our heads at the range of clumsiness and ineptitude that characterized government behavior before and after this storm,” "This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted" "We had a tabletop exercise — Hurricane Pam — that predicted at a level 4 [hurricane], the dam was going to be breached." "If this is what happens when we have advance warning, we shudder to imagine the consequences when we do not," "Four-and-a-half years after 9/11, America is still not ready for prime time." "The White House was clearly in a fog" "Chertoff was clearly detached. He didn't even go to New Orleans 'til Wednesday; then you have [Michael Brown], who was clueless and negligent." "[The Department of Homeland Security] just stood and watched it fail"

Forgiveness is a powerful thing. So powerful that it can truly startle people. The bombings and attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were expected. While they may have scared some into submission and angered others to fight, they did not surprise anyone. If instead of attacking, the Christians in charge of the United States instead followed Jesus's advice and said "We forgive you.", it would have utterly shocked supporters of Al-Qaeda and other like-minded groups. Forgiveness would have completely baffled them, and made it very difficult for them to motivate others to kill themselves in a similar attack. September 11^th was intended to motivate the wrath of the United States, and was only made successful by the providing of that wrath.

This does not mean that if persons who aided the act are caught in the course of law enforcement that they should not be brought to justice. Rule of law must still exist, but invasion of other countries is not in the course of law enforcement. Forgiveness of the transgressions upon us by those outside our laws would keep us far safer than all the weapons in the United States arsenal.

If a person opposed to animal testing were to walk into an animal testing lab with a hatchet and a gun and proceed to attack the people there with those weapons, that person would instantly be labeled a terrorist by the media and the government, and rightly so.

Why won't the media or the government call Jacob D. Robida a terrorist? I don't know, but I'm sure it has something to do with political agendas. Let us say what they will not: LAST NIGHT there was a TERRORIST ATTACK on a GAY BAR in MASSACHUSETTS.