The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. I think that most liberals would agree that the Bush administration is diabolically clever at politics, and at the same time fantastically incompetent at running the government. In fact one of the things that makes them so incompetent is that their first priority is always getting the maximum political mileage out of any situaton rather than doing what’s best for the country.
On the contrary, they had this in their pockets for an entire month waiting for the opportunity–or the need–to spring it. Today is the first anniversary of the London bombings, and [url=http://www.nbc17.com/military/9475368/detail.html]Stephen D. Green entered a not-guilty plea on the charge of raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her entire family. That’s a big negative story for the administration that’s only going to get worse. Every time Green’s case or another major event in that war crime investivgation is set to hit the news, the admin will fire up the Mighty Whirlitzer and flood the media with noise in an attempt to drown it out. Case in point: The day the investigation was announced, the President went to Graceland with the PM of Japan.
On the contrary, I am merely applying the lessons of the last five years of Bush rule. You don’t want the early warning of Bush shenanigans to be a mushroom cloud, do you? For the record, I think the Bush team is diabolically clever at PR and information warfare, but totally incompetent at actually running a government. It’s like the marketing department of a major corporation went rouge and took over a country. They’re only good at spin. And that’s what this is: spin. Or more accurately, FUD–Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, a time-honored marketing technique.
I’m still not seeing the rant. There was a major plot against America in the planning stages. According to the Assistant Director of the FBI, it was no more than four months away, the FBI states that it believes these AQ elements were “the real deal”, the government didn’t break the news (It was leaked to the Daily News.), all indications in the story was that these people were caught because intelligence actually worked, and neither Saddam Hussein nor Iraq were mentioned once in the story. This was going to be an attack. Against NYC. That was thwarted.
Far be it from me to blindly follow G. Chimpy or his merry band of fuck-ups, but what exactly is pissing you off about all of this?
The press is overplaying the drama, not that you can really blame them - it’s the only way to get much mileage out of a plot that was broken up months ago. This does not appear to be 99.9% bullshit like the Sears Tower plot was.
I did get a chuckle out of this sentence in the New York Times.
Come on! Who organizes a terrorist plot on an internet chat board!?
Welcome to AOL’s Ill Will >>Terrorist Ploys >> New York >> New York City chat network:
OsAmA_b_L has just entered chat room: Terrorists Over 50.
OsAmA_b_L: Sup peepz. A/S/L?
Kill_da_Infadelz: Sup Oz!
Doom_2_Zionist_Pigz: HeY yAz Oz. WoOt!
Indy_Girl_Luv: 14/F/Indiana
B_Head_Dem_Allz: 67/M/Afghanistan
OsAmA_b_L: Indy. i think ur in da wrong room
Allah_Forevuh!: KilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidelKilldaInfidel
Doom_2_Zionist_Pigz: Damz Al, quit spammin’
Al_Zarqawi_Iz_Da_Bomb: So, who wantz to blow up da Holland Tunnel?
Kill_da_Infadelz: Da Holland Tunnel? Id hit it.
B_Head_Dem_Allz: damn skippy
I_am_not_an_fbi_narc_2: Daaaaaaaang! Da holland tunel. dats no joke. i’m so like there dudez. hey tell us your whole plan in great detail so we no wats up
Mince,
You just got many much chuckles out of me. Well done.
Why do I get the feeling that much the same sort of thing might have been said if we had arrested twenty presumably-innocent swarthy fellows simply because they had shown relatively little interest in learning how to land a plane in flight school, and happened to be carrying a couple of box cutters?
Regards,
Shodan
You’re still watching Fox News? That’s always a bad idea.
Just stop. Turn it off, block the channel.
Avoid CNN, too. And MSNBC. And the local news (except for sports & weather, that’s okay.)
And I wouldn’t trust CourtTV or PBS either. They’re all in on it.
And the Science Channel has been laughing at me lately.
Those are Weapons of Mass Destruction you know. I hear our troops are still digging them up in the wastelands of Anbar province.
Mince, your post was funny as hell, and I’m still laughing a little, but nevertheless:
There are also reports of the Iraqi insurgency using email and chatrooms to plan stuff.
On CNN’s video page, there is a short about how Jihad is going online with both a public propaganda front and a private planning angle as well.
Typing “Jihad Online” into any search engine will bring up disturbing results.
Bottom line? Using chatrooms for terrorism is very real.
Great. Now every time I have cybersex, I’m going to imagine some fat, balding NSA guy trying to interpret the secret messages in my words…
Man, you are going to have a hell of a time trying to explain to your Taliban cellmate why you’re at Gitmo.
Here is the news they want to cover up
Jack Abramoff visited the White House four more times in 2001 than previously revealed. Released on Friday night.
Fuck off, Shodan.
Mince, you forgot
Born_2_B_Dead: ((((((((OZ!!!))))))))
So now you support a US policy to commence extreme rendition against every Muslim who threatens violence against America in an online chatroom? We’re going to need a bigger island than Gitmo.
Personally, I blame the mainstream media for the dynamic they’ve created, which emphasizes being first over being accurate in such situations. Thus, perspective is often a casualty when a juicy bit about a potential terror plot comes to light. If we’re lucky, in a couple months we’ll notice a little one-paragraph story on page 26D next to the car wash ad, which will essentially say “You remember that terror plot we talked about two months ago? Yeah, there was pretty much no connection with AQ.”
I think we would all be a bit naive to completely ignore the timing on this one. I personally believe it’s another weapon of mass distraction. I think the powers that be have a sort of “Terror Bank” where they make deposits of these little foiled plots, and they make withdrawals as needed in order to blunt the impact of certain other stories and revelations, some of which have been mentioned in this thread already. Call me paranoid, but it’s certainly not the first time an overblown story has emerged to take the spotlight away from a more important (but less interesting, for most) public affairs story.
What happened to those bozos in Miami? They were going to blow up the Sears tower? 
My gosh, you are a moron, aren’t you?
Regards,
Shodan