There have been a couple of pieces of (completely unrelated) news in the past hour that I think are worthy of the community’s attention.
First things first. Kossack Jesselyn Radack posted this rec’d diary, this morning: “Calling BS on "Underwear Bomb Plot": Blatant Fear-Mongering As Conflict Escalates in Yemen.”
She received 20 h.r.’s in her tip jar and hundreds of nasty comments in her diary. A lot of people in this community owe her an apology, IMHO. Bigtime! Turns out, she was spot-on.
[UPDATE (11:20PM EDT, 5/8/12): The media narrative on--and evolution of--this story is what I find most interesting about it. If you bother to look at the facts, the story line/focus has changed, almost entirely, between the time Jesselyn Radack published her post this morning and when my post appeared, tonight. As it turns out, Ms. Radack was quite accurate in her assessment of the original story. The "bomber" turned out to be a gov't agent. This story WAS about a "new underwear bomber," this morning. Now, it's about the bomb-maker. Regrettably, there are some folks in the comments who are conveniently ignoring this reality, opting to cast the exact same crap tonight that they were this morning, and essentially ignoring a primary point (and intent) of this first part of my post, tonight. Am I surprised or upset about it? Nah. It's mostly (not entirely, but mostly) the same "usual suspects." Flame on!]
As Jesselyn Radack noted it, Glenn Greenwald was on the money, too, despite the assholular behavior of many folks’ comments in Ms. Radack’s post, today. The blockquote in her post…
If claims about this plot are true, it's the first plot in ages not to be concocted, funded, directed & driven by the FBI, so that's good. (Glenn Greenwald)
The claims about this “plot,” as initially twisted by our government and the media, once again--as has been the case multiple times in the past couple of weeks--are
FALSE.
Turns out the supposed “bomber” was a government agent/informant who was ”controlling” the maker of the bomb. In other words, the person CONTROLLING the entire story was a government agent! A clearcut case of another government-manufactured terror threat. In other words, the story was bullshit.
But, given a few of my own posts from the past week or two, I realized Jesselyn was on target (this story didn’t pass the smell test from the get-go), which is why I had rec’d her post BEFORE these additional pieces of news began to break in the past 60-90 minutes. As it turns out, the biggest terrorist, domestically and internationally, over the past week or two is…wait for it…the U.S. government! (This is not an exaggeration.)
Here are the links to my posts: “Breaking: Cornstarch Sent to NY Mayor, Banks; Media Feebly Trying To Link "Terror Threat" To OWS,” 4/30/12; “Violence, USA: The Warfare State and the Brutalizing of Everyday Life," Dr. Henry A. Giroux,” 5/2/12; NY Times: "Police Accused of Effort to Spy on Occupy Protesters," 5/3/12.
Doubt the validity of this latest terror travesty?
“Breaking News from NBC New York: Officials: Would-Be Bomber Was Informant”
The would-be suicide bomber tied to an al-Qaida plot aimed at taking down a U.S.-bound jetliner was actually an intelligence agent who provided the United States with critical information from within al-Qaida's terror network, officials told NBC News. The individual was working for Western intelligence "from day one," a Yemini government official told NBC News. The agent, who has not been identified, led C.I.A. agents to Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, the terror group's external operations director who was killed in a U.S.-drone attack Sunday. He was also able to physically transport the non-metallic explosive device, which was built to pass through airport security in a passenger's underpants, to foreign intelligence agencies outside of Yemen, The New York Times reported. The agent is currently in Saudi Arabia.
Here’s a link to more on this breaking story from MSNBC: “
Insider who thwarted underwear bomb plot was supposed to carry it out.”
# # #
Now, onto the next inconvenient reality…
James Carville has just made some statements over at CNN that bear a read from all the cheerleaders and political optimists currently reading these words that think the re-election of the President is going to be a cakewalk. ”Wake The F*ck Up!” More precisely: “WTFU!”
IMHO, it’s today’s must-read.
Carville: Wake up Democrats; you could lose
By James Carville, CNN Contributor
updated 6:40 PM EDT, Tue May 8, 2012
(CNN) –
…My message is simple: WTFU. Translated -- wake the you-know-what up...
…
…Look around the world -- do you see any governments or incumbents winning any elections out there? Did it happen in small elections in Germany or Britain, big elections in France and Greece or how about huge elections in the United States in 2008 and 2010? Please folks -- wake up!
The polling? Not that encouraging. The latest Democracy Corps poll was 47-47. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has the president up a whopping three-tenths of a percentage point. And I am hearing the garbage that Democratic donors are telling Democratic fundraisers ..."Obama has it in the bag."
Newsflash: Nothing is in the bag. Nothing can be taken for granted. Everybody from the precinct door-knocker, to the Chicago high command, to the White House, to the halls of Congress, to the Senate and House committees, to congressional leadership, here is a simple message: If we don't get on the offense, reconnect with the American people, talk about how the middle class is in a struggle for its very existence, hold the Republicans accountable and fight like the dickens, we are going to lose.
You can shoot five Bin Ladens, you can save 10,000 banks and 20 car companies, even pass the most sweeping legislation in modern American history; if people don't think that you are connected to their lives and are fighting for their interests they will vote your tush out of office in a nano-second. For historical reference see Winston Churchill election of 1945 and President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
So, fellow Democrats -- we've got a fight on our hands. We've got to fight in the same way that the people we care most about have fought for quite some time. They have been crushed by high health care costs, soaring education costs, stagnant wages and financial bailouts for irresponsible firms…