Thursday Reads: Villagers Turn On Obama, Texas Tornadoes, West TX Investigations, and Boston Bombing News
Posted: May 16, 2013 Filed under: Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama, Crime, Drone Warfare, Hillary Clinton, Media, morning reads, Psychopaths in charge, Republican politics, Senate, Surreality, The Media SUCKS, the villagers, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, unemployment, We are so F'd, WE TOLD THEM SO | Tags: Boston Marathon bombings, Charles Pierce, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, establishment Democrats, Greg Sargent, Jim Vandehei, Mike Allen, Politico, Texas tornadoes, Watertown MA shootout, West Tx fertilizer plant explosion 58 Comments
Good Morning!!
It’s beginning to look like Obama’s second term is pretty much over before it begins. We’re facing years of Republican scandalmongering and “investigations” of a president who won’t fight back or even fight for his own favored legislation or judicial and government appointments.
What is Obama actually doing every day? Does he spend the time he isn’t fund-raising or doing meaningless public appearances deciding which “extremist” to drone strike next? Because he certainly doesn’t seem to be governing.
Maybe I’m wrong. Who knows. All I know is that the Villagers are finished with him. We got the news yesterday from Politico’s top gossip mavens Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen in one of their trademark “Behind the Curtain” posts: D.C. turns on Obama.
The town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.
Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama — and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now. Establishment Democrats, never big fans of this president to begin with, are starting to speak out. And reporters are tripping over themselves to condemn lies, bullying and shadiness in the Obama administration.Buy-in from all three D.C. stakeholders is an essential ingredient for a good old-fashioned Washington pile-on — so get ready for bad stories and public scolding to pile up.
Really? if powerful Democrats weren’t “big fans” of Obama, why did they work their asses off to hand him the nomination in 2008 when they could just as easily have chosen Hillary Clinton?
Of course the “establishment Democrats” that Vandehei and Allen choose to quote in their piece are hardly current insiders, as Charles Pierce pointed out:
Not to minimize the inherent political savvy of Chris Lehane, one anonymous former Obama aide, one anonymous “longtime Washingtonian,” or Vernon Jordan — who, I admit, I’d thought had long gone off to peddle influence in the Beyond — but I think they’re pretty much camouflage here for the fiery tantrum summoned up by the authors.
(And, not for nothing, but “longtime Washingtonian” may well be the beau ideal of TBOTP sourcing. They should make it the company motto. And the two presiding geniuses are going to be shocked one morning when they look in the mirror and see Sally Quinn staring back at them.)
Nevertheless, the Villagers certainly pay more attention to Vandehei and Allen’s pontifications than Pierce’s. Here’s a little more of their venom:
Obama’s aloof mien and holier-than-thou rhetoric have left him with little reservoir of good will, even among Democrats. And the press, after years of being accused of being soft on Obama while being berated by West Wing aides on matters big and small, now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.
This White House’s instinctive petulance, arrogance and defensiveness have all worked to isolate Obama at a time when he most needs a support system. “It feel like they don’t know what they’re here to do,” a former senior Obama administration official said. “When there’s no narrative, stuff like this consumes you.”
Even Greg Sargent acknowledges that Politico probably speaks for the DC establishment, particularly the corporate media.
A lot of liberal bloggers have harshly criticized Politico’s big, much-discussed piece today reporting that “the town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.” If Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei claim this to be the case, then it’s self evidently true, though it’s unclear that the consequences of this will be quite as bad as VandeAllen suggest they might.
It turns out that “the town,” as a term describing Washington’s political and media elite, actually has a history that goes back to elite Washington’s disdain for Bill Clinton. That history is well explained here by Digby, who ultimately coined the phrase “the Village” as a catch-all description of Washington’s insular ways.
Sargent says we should pay close attention to Vandehei and Allen’s claim that “the DC media now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.”
The claim that the press now has “every incentive” to be “ruthless” is fascinating, and worth unpacking. Why, exactly, is it more in reporters’ interests to be more aggressive in its coverage of Obama right now than it was before? Easy. Now that ”the town” has turned on Obama, being as aggressive as possible in going after him will lead to accolades among media colleagues and ingratiate you with sources, including even Congressional Democrats who will presumably now distance themselves from the White House, in the knowledge that ”the town” has decided the President is in political trouble. It’s hard to interpret this any other way. This is not a particularly flattering description of the proper role of the press, and few reporters would cop to it or accept it. But there’s no reason to doubt VandeAllen’s candid suggestion that this is how parts of the Beltway media genuinely function.
The other important thing here is what this says about scandal coverage. The Politico piece says this:
This is a dangerous — albeit familiar — place for a second-term president. Once the dogs are released, they bark, they bite and it takes a very long time to calm them down. Bill Clinton got hit early and often, and George W. Bush never really recovered from it…The long-term danger is that the political system and the public start to view the president, his motives and ideas through a more skeptical lens. The short-term danger is the press races for new details, new scandals, new expressions of indignity with each passing day.
Again, points for candor. The whole “second term curse” narrative is mostly a media construct, but it’s actually a self-perpetuating one. The danger is that once the “second term curse” idea becomes the story, the actual factual makeup of any given ongoing “scandal” becomes less and less relevant, while the focus intensifies on the White House’s handling of it.
Here’s Dana Millbank, one of the most powerful voices among the Village media: “Obama, the uninterested president.”
President Passerby needs urgently to become a participant in his presidency.
Late Monday came the breathtaking news of a full-frontal assault on the First Amendment by his administration: word that the Justice Department had gone on a fishing expedition through months of phone records of Associated Press reporters.
And yet President Obama reacted much as he did to the equally astonishing revelation on Friday that the IRS had targeted conservative groups based on their ideology: He responded as though he were just some bloke on a bar stool, getting his information from the evening news.
In the phone-snooping case, Obama didn’t even stir from his stool. Instead, he had his press secretary, former Time magazine journalist Jay Carney, go before an incensed press corps Tuesday afternoon and explain why the president will not be involving himself in his Justice Department’s trampling of press freedoms.
And so on. Millbank is outraged like the rest of the DC media. I strongly agree that the DOJ seizing phone records of AP reporters is a breathtaking violation of the First Amendment. The problem I have with all this is that these same corporate media reporters have shown little outrage over the DOJ’s refusal to prosecute the banksters who brought the U.S. economy to its knees or the idiotic behavior of the Republicans House of Representatives which has paralyzed Congress and caused untold misery for millions of poor, working class, and middle class Americans; the deadly drone strikes that have killed innocent civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan; or the horrendous human rights violations at Guantanao. The corporate media is outraged when their rights are trampled, not so much when ordinary people are being ground down by unemployment and austerity politics.
The biggest concern I have is that the press is going to help make it possible for Republicans to take control of the Senate. If that happens we are all in big trouble, including the media. The Republicans aren’t likely to worry about press freedom–as if they ever have. They’ll be too busy passing Paul Ryan’s budget and dismantling Social Security and the Affordable Care Act.
In any case, it sure does look like the rest of Obama’s second term is going to be frustrating to watch.
In other news,
WFFA in Dallas-Ft. Worth reports that “at least 6” people are “confirmed dead in Texas tornadoes.”
GRANBURY, Texas (AP) — A rash of tornados slammed into several small communities in North Texas overnight, leaving at least six people dead, dozens more injured and hundreds homeless. The violent spring storm scattered bodies, flattened homes, threw trailers onto cars.
In Granbury, the worst-hit city, a tornado tore through two neighborhoods around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Resident Elizabeth Tovar described the fist-sized hail that heralded the tornado’s arrival, prompting her and her family to hide in their bathroom.
“We were all, like, hugging in the bathtub and that’s when it started happening. I heard glass shattering and I knew my house was going,” Tovar said, shaking her head. “We looked up and … the whole ceiling was gone.”
The powerful storm crushed buildings as it tore through the area, leaving some as just piles of planks and rubble. Trees and debris were scattered across yards, fences flattened.
At least 100 people are injured and 14 are still missing.
Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds described the devastating aftermath and the hunt for bodies in Granbury, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
“Some were found in houses. Some were found around houses,” Deeds said. “There was a report that two of these people that they found were not even near their homes. So we’re going to have to search the area out there.”
From West, Texas, former EMT Bryce Reed pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of possessing bomb-making materials and giving them to someone else.
Bryce Reed was arrested last week and indicted Tuesday on a charge of possessing an unregistered firearm. Authorities have not announced any link between Reed and the April 17 blast in West, Texas, which killed 14 people.
Federal investigators allege Reed had materials for a pipe bomb that he gave to someone else. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in a court filing that other investigators told him Reed admitted to having the bomb parts.
Reed’s attorney, Jonathan Sibley, said that he agreed with prosecutors to postpone a previously scheduled detention hearing, but would not comment on why. Reed remains in custody.
“We dispute the allegations against him,” Sibley told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Waco, about 15 miles south of West.He also called on federal authorities either to present evidence connecting Reed to the explosion or to say he wasn’t connected. The McLennan County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that no evidence suggesting a link has been found so far.
So far the investigation of the explosion of the West fertilizer factory has found “No evidence bomb caused Texas fertilizer blast,” according to NBC News.
The news comes ahead of a Thursday press conference at the site in which officials from the ATF will discuss their work to investigate the cause of the disaster and lay out their initial findings.
Officials from the Texas fire marshal’s office are also expected speak on the explosion that killed 15 people and injured hundreds while leveling much of the tiny town, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
It was not revealed, however, what precisely officials will say about the cause of the blast.
And one official told NBC News that he did not expect mention of a first responder who is charged with owning pipe bomb components.
This morning CBS News’ John Miller broke the news that Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote a note on the inside of the boat he hid in for hours in Watertown after the shootout that killed his brother Tamerlan.
Sources tell Miller that Tsarnaev wrote the note in the boat he was hiding in as police pursued him, and as he bled from gunshot wounds sustained in an earlier shootout between police and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The note, scrawled with a pen on the interior wall of the cabin, said the bombings were retribution for U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and called the Boston victims collateral damage in the same way Muslims have been in the American-led wars. “When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims,” the note added.
Dzhokar said he didn’t mourn older brother Tamerlan, the other suspect in the bombings, writing that by that point, Tamerlan was a martyr in paradise — and that he expected to join him there.
Miller also reports that police fired many bullets into the boat where the unarmed suspect was hiding.
Miller’s sources say the wall the note was written on was riddled with bullet holes from shots fired into the boat. The shots were fired after Dzhokhar came up through the tarp covering the boat amid police fears that he had another bomb.
So basically, the kid was trying to surrender when police unleashed their firestorm of bullets.
The inaccuracies in this story have been breathtaking. At first we were told that both Tsarnaev brothers were firing at police and that they had an arsenal in their apartment. We were told that Tamerlan was wearing a suicide vest. and that the brothers shot a transit policeman who almost died. It turns out there was one gun, no arsenal, and the transit policeman was hit by friendly fire from other officers during the firefight. So far the only evidence we have that Tamerlan shot the MIT patrolman is the word of the victim of the carjacking, who remains anonymous. How do we even know the Tsarnaev’s were at MIT that night, since the carjacking took place in Allston, which is in Boston, not Cambridge? I have so many questions…
Okay, this post is getting way too long, so I’ll end there. What’s on your mind today? What are you hearing and/or reading. Please share your links on any topic in the comment thread, and have a great day!
peej
Carissa
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Morning. Just got this alert on my cell..(. Bb, is this source believable or anything new?? I know you’ve been following this closely. )
“Source: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left note on boat saying Boston attack was payback for what he called U.S. attacks on Muslims.” — CNN
It’s in my post.
Oh great! 🙂
I heard rumors about the note a long time ago. I’m sure it’s true. It would be easy enough to disprove. The owner of the boat must have seen it.
Yes, you’re right. And you have heard rumors of the note–thats what i was looking to hear.
I just get wary when I see CNN/cable reporting anything “breaking” on the Boston bomber story anymore…after the wild “Misha” goose chases …i just started tuning out everything but the most raging headlines. so I thought I’d check with you.
What I had heard–very early on–was that a note was found in the boat. I think one of the local police officers may have told a media person on the day Dzhokhar was captured. I watched the coverage all day (and the night before). I had assumed it was a note written on paper.
Interesting essay on novelist Dan Brown, whose latest book came out on Tuesday: Dan Brown still can’t write, but he deserves some respect.
I confess to having read The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol. I actually like the latter best. Brown’s latest book is about Dante’s Inferno.
I also have read The daVinci Code to the end, but could never quite suspend my disbelief. That review is so funny about Brown’s writing making people think that:
Oh for sure there are secrets in the pattern of cat hair left on my black clothes 😀
I’ve noticed that myself. But then again, cats are the keeper of so many secrets. They are goddesses & gods, as we all know.
LOL
How about the secrets left in the patterns of the fat marks my tight clothes make on my body?
There was an even funnier parody of Brown’s writing at
the GuardianThe Telegraph a few days ago. Here it is.Don’t make fun of renowned Dan Brown
Love the post, bb. I think SD is the last bastion of sanity and reason these days. The state of our media seems to be being first with “the story”, even if it means making stuff up. Let’s jump to conclusions or “predict” what’s going to happen. Remember when The National Enquirer was mostly predictions from Jeanne Dixon (I think that was her name)? So, what was once deemed only fit for lining the bottom of bird cages, read by “silly old ladies”, is now what our press has become. Or at least Politico, CNN, Fox, WSJ and others.
The Politico story seems to me simply their wish list. But hasn’t that been the Republican wish all along – that the press and then everyone else would turn against Obama? Apparently these guys at Politico haven’t noticed the voices of dissent from the left, from the beginning. Each of us here have, from time to time, voiced our concerns and disagreement with many of Obama’s actions. I’m beginning to think that more people were like many of us – they held their noses & voted for Obama out of total fear of his opposing candidate. I know I have a reasonable fear of Republican rule instead of an unreasonable fear of Sharia Law blanketing the land. Of course, Republican rule would be its own brand of Sharia Law, especially where women and the un-priviledged are concerned.
The shooting of the MIT police officer always puzzled me. It just seemed so unrelated to what followed in the chase to capture the Tsarnaev brothers. It seems that our news is a dish better served cold, after actual facts are gathered. Novel concept that in the race to capture first place in reporting “the story.”
Again, thanks for the thoughtful and reasonable info provided on SD.
The liberal media is probably more upset about the AP surveillance than the right wingers. I have no doubt it’s going to hurt Obama a lot. A president can start wars with lies, assassinate American citizens, hand over the treasury to Wall Street, but there will be hell to pay if he angers the press.
I’m so glad you’re back, Connie!
Thanks and I’m so glad this was a short hospital stay this time. Of course, I’m still worried until I’m released by the doctors & pronounced all clear.
I’m with you that the outrage over gov’t intrusion in our phone & email communications should have begun way back when the Patriot Act was in discussion. The main problem, as I see it, is that our media’s allegiance is to their advertisers (some of which are now their employers) & not to the public. My understanding of the founders intention of a free press was to inform & protect the citizens/the people and not those in power. Our only value seems to be as buyers of the products & services advertised. This is why the internet & blogs like Sky Dancing are vital to the average person.
You are so right, ecocat. And remember back when Obama reversed on FISA and Hillary did not? All the outrage was at Hillary, who for some supposed nefarious reason voted against FISA. Now, too late, too little, the outrage is at Obama.
I do remember when Obama said that he wouldn’t support reauthorization of FISA & then voted for it. That action set my tone toward Obama, which hasn’t changed since. As time progressed, I did cut him some slack, knowing that even Merlin’s magical prowess could not have fixed the 8 years of horrific damage done under the reign of King George II & his evil cronies. The realization that many of Bill Clinton’s actions had paved the way for the financial collapse was disheartening as well. I fear that while some banks are “too big to fail”, the USA isn’t. I can’t help but wonder if The Rise & Fall of the USA won’t become a best seller in 50 -100 years, replacing The Rise & Fall of the Roman Empire.
Obama betrayed them, his best cheer leaders with pom poms… 😯
I liked Greenwald’s piece, which essential expands on your comment above. Spot on BB!
Most of the inaccuracies in the Boston story have come from the “authorities.” I’m guessing part of the problem is that so many police from multiple towns were on the scene as well as the FBI and ATF. Who knows who was leaking all the stuff or how close they were to the action?
I agree.
The cowering press knew all along that Obama was an inept choice but for the fact that he was a minority candidate they salivated all over the place to get him elected. Thus the results.
Obama must have made a promise not to pursue the irregularities of the Bush Admin with his “turning the page” approach to the failures that led us to financial collapse and two wars that were dragging us further into the mire. No one was held accountable and the GOP took advantage to thwart him every step of the way with the bullshit “compromise” positions he held onto.
Now they have found the opening to attack him which has been percolating for the last 5 years and these events offer the “cover” to finally suggest he may not have been up to the job from the beginning. They wanted to “feel good” about a minority candidate and they got one who was far less experienced to handle the mess that had been left behind. That along with his own lackadaisical approach to governing has given us 5 years of “do nothing” coupled with the previous 8 years of crapola that has left this nation the mess it is today.
Between a miserable partisan congressional group of lawmakers and a POTUS whose only interest is in his own historical legacy, the needs of this country have been ignored. It is all just a “game” for these people who will never feel the effects of decisions that barely touch their own lives.
Had Hillary been better? Who knows but just in the interest of “feeling good” about electing the first minority candidate we have all been made to suffer the consequences of a bunch of people who could not care less about the role of leadership.
The press is all about “access” and being seen at the proper events to legitimize themselves. They smell “blood in the water” and are eager to climb on board when all along the ineptitude was there.
Hi Pat,
I’ve missed you. Have you been reading any good books?
:wave: Hi Pat! 🙂
CIA explains how it is collecting and analyzing everything we do on-line, on our phones, etc.–with Powerpoint slides.
Just one more reason for me not to get a cell phone.
Your car may well be tagged anyway.
Drowning in data. But there’s no way (yet) to make sense out of all that. But the data storage industry is happy.
These 20 Advanced Military Projects Will Change Your Life
Following on the CIA Big Data story, this piece about what DARPA is up to now is kind of fascinating. Here we can hope for more success.
Data scientists? How redundant. And creepy.
Really “data miners”, which is just creepy. But Google does it constantly,
Yeah.
Can’t stop it.
Unless you are Abby on NCIS, a “data scientist” would first put forth or work off of some hypothesis in order to collect and analyze the data for a given outcome.
Is the data going to be available to the public? Who will control the data? Every hypothesis or question, restricts the outcome of the result. Who gets to ask the questions? If you can’t get access with your public library card, how are you going to insure it’s accuracy and how are you going to pay for it?
Forget the whole “Big Brother’ thing. I envision Walmart tracking you down because you haven’t bought something from their store in the last month and gosh you missed the last mind numbing movie, and don’t forget your alcohol and Xanex.
Hubby and I were just having a Richard Rohr discussion, this weekend over Rohr’s assertion of the future being more like Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” as opposed to George Orwell’s “1984”.
Target already started profiling their customers based on their purchases. Heard a story where a father got all heated with Target because they were sending his daughter coupons for baby related items. He was pissed. Come to find out daughter was pregnant (teenager) and hadn’t told her parents. She had purchased pregnancy type vitamins, probably a pregnancy test & voila – let’s capture her as a mommy customer.
Yep. Even if it’s a story, it’s a good example. My grocery store is doing it as well. The clerks were excited to get me onto the new rewards card, because the savings and coupons are supposed to be targeted to my shopping behavior. One one hand it makes sense, if they know what to stock based on purchases. On the other hand it’s likely to be a better indicator of what will be available to buy on limited shelf space, and therefore with fewer alternatives.
Apparently I am now to go online to see Monday specials, not seen on weekly flyers, and compare them with my rewards balance.
But this is all the easy seductive stuff.
As an aside, it doesn’t jive with the “buy local” manta. As it is I will now have to go forty miles or more to buy my favorite local ice cream, my local yoghurt may be in danger of removal, and I will be buying Wisconsin eggs butter and milk, as opposed to that produced in CA where I live.
More importantly, look how Netroots succeeded in manipulating minds in the 2004 election. Compare the superficiality of a darkened candidate’s image circulated between Daily Kos and Huffi each quoting the other as the source. The flattening of information is in progress. NewsMax widgets constantly bombard you with garbage. Dancing bananas tell you what not to eat. Maybe the creepiest this right now is the pop up adds showing up on your screen at every website. You know, the ones that keep track of where you have shopped and want you to go back for more. Someone out there is logging my purchases at different locations.
Yippy! We finally get a real PRINCESS! A PRINCESS who is brave, active, and doesn’t conform to the wishes of other, and follows her unique spirit. Merida stays Merida, YIPPY!
Wow, sometimes something works!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/pentagon-recognizes-transgender-veteran-advocates-see-a-shif?
“By showing you can actually change your gender marker with the Department of Defense, it shows that the Department of Defense actually will do that, and if they do that then it’s another stop toward figuring out a way to have open service for trans people,” activist says.
posted May 16, 2013 10:56am EDT
Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed Staff
The Pentagon formally recognized earlier this month that there are transgender veterans — a step that LGBT advocates say is a long way from open transgender service in the military, but also a significant first step in that process.
In a short letter dated May 2, a Navy official told Autumn Sandeen, a veteran and transgender activist: “Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12, 2013.”
Fired up again, Boehner is ramping it up with the first words coming out of his mouth……..Obamacare, and that’s why we don’t have jobs. That’s his focus, using the word “trust”…………he’s whisking away the emails on Bengahzie, and still wants someone to go to jail over IRS.
Obama needs to get a plan, and get it together, and fight fire with fire.
Brace yourselves because as Obambam’s fortunes flag he and his handlers are going to try to lay off blame for Benghazi on Hill’s!
David Ignatious has a good point again.
WaPo: In IRS and AP scandals, a frighteningly impotent government
Washington Post is reporting that Obama is now asking congress to “fully fund” his budget request for emabassy security………….$1.4 billion coming from funds that were not used in Iraq.
Republicans cut it by 331 million in 2012.
He had better “fully” use this battering ram.
I don’t like that it means twice number or more of for-hire mercenaries, however.
The great new jobs growth, funded out of the SBA and hiring indigenous Alaskans.
Hurrumpf.
Then there is is Kevin Cramer, Rep ND preaching at a commencement about Sandy Hook, and Colorado shootings and how it is all because of legalized abortion from 40 years ago:
Somebody review his speech before hand and approved it, you knows, I’m sick of these assholes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/16/kevin-cramer-school-shootings_n_3285328.html
I have an idea. Let’s go to our grocery stores and demand the the all the Inquirer type rag mags be put on the rack with the other mags instead of at the clerks stand. Let’s insist that all replacements to that at the clerks stand be mags for children and adults on citizenship, and public affairs.
Excellent post BB, thank you.
This is the same as it ever was and the Village press is awakening to yet another round of deja vu all over again. The telltale indicator of the most exalted ox gorers are those who have the largest stockpile of charcoal briquettes. VandeAllen are like a broken clock only with a lower batting average for being right.
It’s tremendously saddening for a country that produced Martha Gelhorn, Ernie Pyle, Walter Kronkite, Helen Thomas, Molly Ivens, Edward R. Murrow, Susan Sontag, Hunter Thompson (and I could go on and on) that the press has become a buffet meal for the lobbyists. It didn’t used to be that way, and I doubt that it will ever return to what it was because these current press dillettantes are just that – they’ve been trained just like my dog, and they will do whatever their masters demand. They will print whatever they have been told they are allowed to print. The fourth estate is dead in my opinion.
I’m glad you included Helen Thomas.
Always Pilgrim, Helen Thomas is my hero and I’m glad you recognize her for her genius. She was amazing wasn’t she. What a woman, what a human want an intellectual, there are no words to adequately describe her. Sad thing, like all the other I quoted and many that I didn’t, in todays climate she will never receive the recognition that she truly deserves. She was a Hero!
Well said, HT
is it just me or dose I wall the note was written by Dzhokhar is found all of a sudden seem a little suspicions , something dose not seem right . why wasn’t this note repotted on earlier. seems a little fishy to me that they just found this note today.
They didn’t just find it today. As I wrote up above, I heard about it on the day Dzhokhar was captured because one of the officers who was on scene told someone interviewing him on TV that a note was found. If this weren’t true, the owner of the boat could easily come forward. He saw the note too.
Law enforcement doesn’t immediately release all the evidence the collect in criminal investigations to the public. That would interfere with a fair trial.
BB thx for the clarification , but I cant help but be skeptical .
What is it that is difficult for you to believe? I don’t understand.
HuffPo: Darin Haas, Fort Campbell Sexual Assault Program Manager, Arrested In Domestic Dispute
It just keeps piling deeper!
I hate to say it, but this is nothing new – it is just now coming to the forefront – some people are finally paying attention. Sad so sad. Look at my country’s Russell – he was in charge of one of the biggest military operational bases in the country and oh (cough) he murdered two women (that they know of) and raped many others. NOthing new except some people are finally after all these years paying attention.
saddest of all, I have to ask, how long will they pay attention and will they actually do something about it?
women and men have been raped in the military for a very long time – most victims have never stepped forward and it has resulted in a culture that is toxic.