Bomb units scrambled across Boston and Somerville today to investigate several suspicious devices.

"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," Gov. Deval Patrick said.

This is an extremely serious situation," former FBI Director Bill Gavin told FOX News during the investigation.

"Whoever did this — whether it be kids or adults — if they think it's funny, I think they'll soon learn it's not that much of a humorous situation."

What a bunch of idiots!

It was a marketing campaign.

I'm reminded of the anti-terror unit in Atlanta that responded to dry ice in plastic bottles and the local prosecuter proceeded to bring the guilty party up on four felony counts because otherwise they would have had to admit that they over-reacted. You do not need to make criminals out of innocent people in order to justify your actions!

This is priceless:

At least one of the devices was described to FOX News as a computer keyboard, to which a picture of someone "flipping off" the viewer was taped. Officials at the time suggested that the picture might be an attempt to mock police investigating the device.

You and your "third dimension."

cbs4boston.com - Hoax Devices Creating Gridlock In Boston

This is another excellent post from the ArmsControlWonk about the (likely) failure of the DPRK nuke test. The entire post is suggested reading, but I must single out this snip as the most funny thing I've heard so far today:

The United States has built a missile defense that does not work, to defend against a North Korean missile that does not work, that would carry a nuclear warhead that does not work.

This is all very postmodern.

Hahahaha!!

ArmsControlWonk: So, like, why didn't it work?

The Soviets understood that these methods were cruel. They were also honest with themselves about the purpose of such cruelty -- to brutalize their enemies and to extract false confessions, rather than truthful intelligence. By denying this, President Bush is not just misleading us. He appears to be deceiving himself.

How do you motivate a high level operative that you've captured? Carrots or sticks. Sometimes you don't have any carrots. You are ultimately going to seek a death sentence against your captive. Its unlikely that the administration is employing these methods for the ends described in this article. However, the reason you have these rules is that its impossible to tell. Laws aren't impossible to break. Its just hard, and for a reason.

Tom Malinowski - Call Cruelty What It Is - washingtonpost.com

Two Atlanta-area men in federal custody as part of a terrorism probe discussed possible locations for a U.S. attack, including military bases and oil refineries, according court documents unsealed Friday.

The U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta on Thursday unsealed an indictment against Georgia Tech student Syed Ahmed, 21.

Ehsanul Sadequee, 19, was arrested this week in Bangladesh and handed over to the FBI. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on a charge of making false statements during an interview with an FBI agent.

The FBI affidavit also says agents found two CD-ROMs in the lining of Sadequee's suitcase when he was leaving the United States. One disc contained pornography and the other was encrypted with a code the FBI was unable to crack, according to the affidavit.

I think its interesting that they were flat out arrested in the usual way instead of under an enemy combatant designation or some other habeas loophole. One is an American citizen. Not guilty pleas are also very interesting. That would not be possible under an "alternative" detention strategy.

CNN.com - FBI: Georgia men talked of U.S. terror plan

Secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein discussing ways to attack America with weapons of mass destruction will be the subject of an ABC "Nightline" program Wednesday night, a former federal prosecutor told Cybercast News Service.

The tapes are being called the "smoking gun" of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The New York Sun reported that the tapes have been authenticated and currently are being reviewed by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Loftus has been tight-lipped about the tapes, telling the Sun only that he received them from a "former American military intelligence analyst." However, on Wednesday he told Cybercast News Service, "Saddam's tapes confirm he had active CW [chemical weapons] and BW [biological weapons] programs that were hidden from the UN."

This should be interesting. The key figure here is John Loftus, who organizes an intelligence conference that takes place this weekend.

This is from a press release on the Intelligence Summit website:

A former military intelligence analyst, who currently works as a civilian contractor, believes he has found a cache of extremely confidential--and very shocking--audio recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings. The audiotapes, which had apparently been overlooked, were found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files. These tapes are extremely significant, since they may be the best evidence yet of Saddam's secret intentions concerning weapons of mass destruction.

Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special -- 02/15/2006

This is horrible! To the best of my knowledge, the Nun-Bun is Nashville's only relic. Not to mention, BongoJava is my primary Nashville hangout. I take this as a personal affront.

We must catch the culprit(s). For great justice!

"My gut feeling is that it's destroyed," said Bob Bernstein, the owner of Bongo Java coffee shop, where the bun had been on display for nearly 10 years. "Someone took it, destroyed it and it's the last we'll hear of it."

Someone broke into the Belmont Boulevard coffeehouse yesterday morning, apparently with the sole purpose of stealing the pious pastry. Bills and loose change in charity-donation containers near the bun's glass display case were untouched, Bernstein said.

"They went right for the bun," he said. "What the heck they are going to do with it, I can't imagine. It's sure not something anyone would eat. I hope they do eat it. It will teach them a lesson."

"It's weird," Bernstein said. "You laugh about it a little bit, but it's an empty feeling. It's like the end of an era."

BongoJava Nun Bun stolen!

Via Drudge Report. An impressive collection of battle shots.

Btw, does anyone know any details about the visual head gear the troops are wearing these days?

Raw Video Captures of The Battle of Fallujah

Rattle wrote:
] Will he pander to the fundamentalist right, now that they have
] nothing more to offer him? I can see that one go either way.
] I hold hopes that Bush/Rove drop their interest in issues such
] as prayer in schools and amendments on the court house walls.
] They no longer need it to inspire the catholic right to
] transform their group fanaticism into a demographic with a
] strong supporting vote. Join me in my blind optimism for a
] minute, it will help slow your heart rate and bring on some of
] that hope for the future many are lacking this November 3rd.

There are some things I disagree with in this post, but you are right about this. My prediction about rapid Constitutional amendments is wrong. If they did that they'd be unloading all their future ammo in one shot. Its not going to go down like that.

The Fundamentalists have handed them two major electoral victories, one in 1994 and one in 2004. The first was based on a series of promises. What they actually delivered for those promises had a particular shape. What they offered in this election had the exact same shape. Its a pattern:

1. Find a small liberal group with little political power. (Geeks with the CDA, Gays with the marriage amendment.)
2. Kick them in the teeth as hard as you can.

There is absolutely no political risk because the victims have no real power, and the fundamentalists eat it up! They love kicking people in the teeth. It makes them feel morally superior.

Now the CDA didn't work out the way they'd hoped for two reasons: 1. It didn't actually work. 2. It was quite a let down from the grandious promises made in 1994. The Republicans learned from this experience and adapted their strategy. They hauled out the teeth kicking before the election and asked their constituants to come out to specifically vote on it.

The people who fall for this are tremedously stupid on every imaginable level. They are certainly more motivated by the opportunity to actually vote on a singular instance of teeth kicking then they are by a complex "Contract with America."

Now, the grandious promises are still there, but they are in the background where only the people who care about them see them, and they are unlikely to see the full light of day, simply because the Republicans have what they want and have no motivation to do anything else unless pressured.

Some stuff will be voted on. You might see a federal Gay marriage amendment. They will only give enough that they won't totally piss off the fundamentalists by openly screwing them over. But come election time in 2008 you can rest assured that another teeth kicking will occur. Could be any number of things. But the process toward a fundamentalist state will be only fast enough to keep the fundamentalists from abandoning the Republicans and not a drop faster.

This is the new Republican party strategy and it is this what the Democrats need to respond to. The most obvious response is to attack it directly, by presenting the dead obvious truth that kicking people in the teeth is not Christian, and there ought to be more important things that people of faith focus on, like poverty and war.

We shall see...

RE: And the gloves come off..

This is no longer an interesting coincidence. It is an unmistakable message from God. I hope everyone is listening.

message-from-God.gif (GIF Image, 744x900 pixels)

] An Arabic TV news network said Friday that American
] hostage Paul Johnson Jr. has been beheaded by his Saudi
] captors.

Echoing Nick's comments, I was afraid that this would happen. Saudi Arabia is obviously not going to release 1000 militants. The demands were simply used to attract attention.

My condolences to the Johnson family.

CNN.com - Report: U.S. hostage beheaded - Jun 18, 2004