Police State

Injuries from Boston Marathon bombing. Yesterday the media reported the police had found and dismantled two additional bombs at the marathon. Today they're reporting there were no additional bombs. Which is it? Is this inaccurate reporting or are the cops lying?

The pressure cooker bomb was similar to IEDs used against US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The main lesson to be learned is the government can't protect you. Think about the Times Square bomber. Think about the underwear bomber. Government doesn't make us safer. It goes all around the world and makes enemies who then want to come back here and attack us, therefore government makes us less safe. Al Qaeda magazine featured instructions on how to make a pressure cooker bomb in 2010. US warned that Afghans were using pressure cooker IEDs in 2004.

Why did cops jump on the Saudi student as a suspect?

"In the midst of that, according to a CBS News report, a bystander saw the young man running, badly hurt, rushed to him, and then tackled him and knocked him to the ground. The bystander thought he looked suspicious.
What made them suspect him? He was running—so was everyone. The bystander handed the man to the police, who reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second bomb—as there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone was dead—a question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia, which is around where the logic stops. Was it just the way he looked, or did he, in the chaos, maybe call for God with a name that someone found strange?"

It could be that simple. Police now look for a dark skinned man who wore a dark, hooded sweatshirt. Under cover police were also in the crowd. The pressure cooker bomb called "'highly effective' weapon of al Qaeda.

The New York Times says this bombing ends a decade without a terrorist attack in the US. Maybe they forgot the underwear bomber and the Times Square bomber. Maybe they forgot the Fort Hood shooter.

This bombing gives DHS an excuse to turn all sporting events into police state events.

Interesting comparison of the response to the murders in Boston versus the response to four murders in Chicago yesterday. Boston was another example of government failure - the place was swarming with cops - the government needs to cover up. I guess Americans don't consider run of the mill murders a failure of government.

Hundreds if not thousands of cameras failed to stop the bombing, and they have yet to show the bomber. How's that surveillance state working out for us? Description of all the security people at the event. Bomb sniffing dogs at start and finish. A list of ways DHS wasted money for security.

Becky Ayers is right, the plot thickens. The media is reporting over and over that there were no indications of a threat before the bombs went off, but one participant tells a different story,

"University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach, who was near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a series of explosions went off, said he thought it was odd there were bomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines.
　
"They kept making announcements to the participants do not worry, it's just a training exercise," Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15.

Stevenson said he saw law enforcement spotters on the roofs at the start of the race. He's been in plenty of marathons in Chicago, D.C., Chicago, London and other major metropolitan areas but has never seen that level of security before.
　
"Evidently, I don't believe they were just having a training exercise," Stevenson said. "I think they must have had some sort of threat or suspicion called in."

CNN reports a state government official said there were no credible threats before the race.

Stevenson had just finished the marathon before the explosions. Stevenson said his wife had been sitting in one of the seating sections where an explosion went off, but thankfully she left her seat and was walking to meet up with him.

"We are just so thankful right now," Stevenson said."

Here's another discrepancy.

In a third discrepancy, cell phones were not shut down in Boston as reported.

When government fails, we pay. The first thing government does to cover up failure is praise first responders, but what about the people who just finished running 26.2 miles?

One knee-jerk response to the Boston attack is removing trash cans at sporting events.

Insight from the Onion, Sadly, there are many people who could have done this.

Somebody mailed ricin to the Republican senator from Mississippi.

Two states restrict drone use, though restricting them to emergencies will be useless because police will redefine emergency to mean whatever they want to use it for.