Tag: Terrorism

Couple That Shot Las Vegas Cops Couldn’t Have Made Their Intentions Any Plainer

Trish
The Millers on their wedding day. These are not happy people.

Besides being a cold-blooded act of cowardice, Jerad and Amanda Miller’s unprovoked shooting of two Las Vegas policemen and a Wal-Mart shopper prompts a bigger question: How much rope must a free country give antisocial, violent malcontents with which to hang themselves? Do we wait for the body count? If not, how do we decide it’s time to act to protect potential targets?

The Millers couldn’t have been more forthright in their intentions. Yet their next-door neighbor and self-proclaimed “best friend,” who was “holding documents for the couple that included detailed plans to take over a courthouse and execute public officials” said she didn’t realize they were “that crazy.” Really?

Is that how we want it to work in this country? I’m really asking

Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were in their seats at CiCi’s Pizza, 309 N. Nellis Blvd., at about 11:20 a.m. Sunday when suspects, identified by sources as Jerad Miller, 31, and his wife Amanda, age unknown, entered the rear of the restaurant…

The police official said neither officer had a chance to return fire…

Jerad Miller then covered the officers with the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me,” and placed a manifesto with a swastika symbol on one officer’s body.

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AT&T Can’t Help Itself

Trish

Social media was awash in messages of remembrance of 9/11 on the 12th anniversary of one of the saddest days of loss in America. Many of the tributes were heartfelt but a bunch had a “just phoning it in” quality.* Condescending Corporate Brand Page, for example, found a horse groomer posting a picture of a horse with the New York skyline clipped into its coat.

But AT&T’s tweet of a man’s hand holding up a smart phone to take a picture of the beams of light that mark Ground Zero was the popular winner for Worst 9/11 Tie-In Tweet or Facebook Post. One Twitter user noted, “Not an occasion for product placement, AT&T.”

As is almost always the case, the original sin could have been forgiven; the ones that follow are harder to overlook. In this instance, that sin would be AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s apology tweet, which included this line:

I consider that date a solemn occasion each year, a time when I reach out to those I was with on that awful day, share a moment of reflection for the lives lost and express my love of country.

Really Randall? It’s a day you “reach out?” Like to maybe, “reach out and touch someone?” Oh wait, that was AT&T’s long-running advertising slogan. Doh!

We agree with marketing and technology consultant David Berkowitz when it comes to companies trying to “engage” with us in social media.

“Unless you’re bringing something of value, the easy thing is just to keep your mouth shut.”

* Pun intended.

Exclusive: Pensito Review Obtains Partial al Qaeda Conference Call Transcript

Buck Banks

Pensito Review has acquired a partial transcript of the recent conference call between 20 al Qaeda leaders that was intercepted by U.S. national security personnel and led to the temporary closing of 22 U.S. embassies. The call was first reported Wednesday by the Daily Beast. Here is the partial transcript that we have obtained from an anonymous source close to the investigation:

(ring)

Hello, welcome to the AT&T Conference Center. You have accessed the al Qaeda network sponsored by as-Sahab.

Your host, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has not yet arrived. Please hold, your terrorist masterminds conference will begin shortly.

To make your conference call experience as productive as possible, please listen closely to the following menu.

If you are a leader of al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, press one.

If you are a leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, press two.

If you are a leader of al Shabab, press three.

If you are a leader of another al Qaeda franchise, splinter group or renegade terrorist cell, press four.

If you are a mullah from an unincorporated tribal area who would like to become an al Qaeda franchisee, press five.

If you are a disaffected American or British subject seeking to join al Qaeda or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates, press six.

Please note that for the convenience of other conference participants, all callers except the host will have their lines muted to reduce the sounds of ongoing firefights, Arab Spring uprisings or U.S. drone attacks that could disrupt the call.

This conference call is moderated. If you would like to join the conversation and denounce the Western infidels, press the pound key and an operator will place your insane Islamist diatribe into the conference queue.

Please hold. Your conference will begin shortly.

Thank you for using AT&T.

(disconnect, dial tone)

Anybody Remember Terrorism?

Trish

…as I listen to the debate about the disclosure of two government programs designed to track suspected phone and e-mail contacts of terrorists, I do wonder if some of those who unequivocally defend this disclosure are behaving as if 9/11 never happened — that the only thing we have to fear is government intrusion in our lives, not the intrusion of those who gather in secret cells in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan and plot how to topple our tallest buildings or bring down U.S. airliners with bombs planted inside underwear, tennis shoes or computer printers.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and contrarian, being right for once.

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Trish

You can’t have 100-percent security and also have 100-percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.

— Pres. Obama, getting real again. He added, “One of the things we’re going to have to discuss and debate is how are we striking this balance between the need to keep the American people safe and our concerns about privacy. Because there are some trade-offs involved.”

CNN: Suspect Arrested in Boston Bombing – UPDATED

Jon Ponder

CNN is reporting that a man has been arrested in Monday’s bomb attacks on Boston Marathon. The man was seen in surveillance videos placing one of the bombs that went off near the finish line of the race.

According to CNN, the suspect was described as dark skinned.

UPDATE: NBC is reporting that this is not so, that a suspect has been identified but that he has not been arrested.

UPDATE 2: AP confirms that a suspect has been taken to federal courthouse. CNN says it has separate Boston local law enforcement and federal law enforcement sources confirming that a suspect is in custody.

UPDATE 3: Now CNN is backtracking, saying that no one has been arrested.

UPDATE 4: Lesson learned. Stick with MSNBC.

The Rightwing’s Obsession with Obama and Terror

Trish
Did we forget what the story is here?

Somewhere aliens are watching us from outer space and scratching their headlike appendages. Because before all the blood had even dried on the sidewalks, the rightwing dropped the subject of what happened at the 2013 Boston Marathon and got back to the subject they seem to care most about: hating Pres. Obama.

This tweet hints at the problem.

Fort Hood? Wait. What? Wasn’t Fort Hood a case of a wacko with a gun shooting up his fellow service members, like James Holmes shooting up fellow Batman fans, and Adam Lanza shooting up his fellow Newtown youth? What distinguishes Fort Hood from the other mass shootings that have become part of the landscape? Could it be that the gunman in Fort Hood was a Muslim? Now we’re getting somewhere, because any time you have a Muslim person involved, it’s de facto terrorism. Right?

But why are we slamming Obama for not labeling all three of those events as terrorism, straight out of the gate? Here, this tweet should clear it right up.

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