When It Is And When It Isn't

This morning on Fox And Friends, the three stooges of morning television took after the failed NYC bomb plot with predictable fervor. They teased the Napolitano segment with a paranoid tirade from Peter Johnson Jr about how terror is everywhere and we all have to be afraid and that The Dept. Of Homeland Security isn't protecting America - you know, typical Fox"News" stuff.

When Napolitano finally got on, she did her best to let the facts be known and that the police and Homeland Security are handling this carefully and as a real threat. The main problem that the Fox crew had - she wasn't forceful enough with the word terrorism.



here's what she had to say on Sunday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday morning that the administration is "certainly considering" that the car bomb found in New York's Times Square could be an act of terror.

"Luckily, no one is hurt, and now the full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism," New York Gov. David Paterson said in a statement.

When asked about Paterson's characterization of the incident, in which a T-shirt vendor noticed smoke coming from the back of an SUV and notified police, Napolitano said forensic evidence plus video footage from the area was being analyzed.

"We're certainly considering it now that it could be an act of terrorism or was intended to be an act of terrorism," Napolitano said on "Fox News Sunday."

Napolitano said they were "not ruling anything out."

Reports are coming in that the person that made the bomb didn't know what he was doing and the wingnuts at Free Republic are already starting to spin this as someone trying to frame the Tea Baggers.

From the New York Times:

Law enforcement officials offered a more detailed description of the makeup of the failed car bomb found in Times Square on Saturday night, and said they were reviewing surveillance footage that showed a white man who appeared to be in his 40s walking away from the area as he looked over his shoulder and removed a layer of clothing.

Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner, said the materials found in the Nissan Pathfinder — gasoline, propane, firecrackers and simple alarm clocks — also included eight bags of a granular substance, later determined to be nonexplosive grade of fertilizer, inside a 55-inch-tall metal gun locker.

Aside from the non-explosive grade fertilizer, the trigger mechanism was an old-style clock and the ignition system was 20-30 M88 firecrackers.

And while the NYC police say that the fire produced from the gas and the vehicle alone would have produced a fireball enough to kill someone, this bomb wasn't going to do the type of damage the designer had hoped for.

Michelle Malkin concludes her internet shrieking with a not-too-thinly-veiled accusation that the bomber is some left-wing anarchist.

You see where this is all going, right?

Much in the same way that conservative refused to call Joseph Stack a terrorist after he flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas, I'm thinking that once all the info is in, you won't hear the words "terrorist" because the suspect the police are looking for is white. And we all know that you have to be non-white and between the ages of 18 and 29 to be considered a terrorist.

Context, Revisionist History, And A Maddow Retort

In more ways than one, Racheal Maddow has the chops and the know-how than anyone on MSNBC, sometimes even Olbermann, and this segment highlights why this is so.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The way in which conservative politicians, former officials of the Bush administration, and their mouth-agape followers use the spectre of terrorism to tilt the playing field is quite spectacular at times.

Some people are trying to campaign off of terrorist attacks much in the way Bush did in 2004 while others are attempting to show that since Obama didn't immediately make a grand, theatrical statement that this means he is soft of terrorism and putting our country at great risk.

And while context, honesty, and an acceptance of even recent history is a foreign concept to most conservatives, it still boggles the mind how so many in our country can fall for even a portion of what they attempt to pass off as fact.

In many ways, conservatives rely on manipulating people's perceptions of events. Does anyone remember all the Jack Bauer "24" references that seemed to be endlessly streaming in from Fox"News" and various other conservative media outlets? That's how they want you to perceive that American intelligence agents work, that everything is just like a fictitious spy film or television program. They want you to believe that everything can be wrapped up in a tight timeline with action, intrigue, and the good guy nabbing the al Qeada operative and getting the girl at the end. They molest people's perceptions to such an extent that the perspective is shifted and that person suddenly has no idea where they are anymore.

This is the mission of the conservative and the media actors that carry their message into millions of homes every day.

Janet, You're Making A Huge Mistake

Way to cave to the nuttiest voices on the Right.

A contentious "Rightwing Extremism" report that warned of military veterans as possible recruits for terrorist attacks against the U.S. was not authorized, has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Capitol Hill lawmakers.

"The wheels came off the wagon because the vetting process was not followed," Ms. Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.

"The report is no longer out there," she said. "An employee sent it out without authorization."

The report was shared with state and local law enforcement officials nationwide via the department's internal Web site on April 7, angering Republican lawmakers and military veterans who said it unfairly stereotyped veterans.

Napolitano just lost the initiative. The report, which is still completely relevant and accurate, is apparently going to be re-written and redistributed.

The issue at hand was the far-right having to face the very real facts that extremism from their end of the political spectrum is very real. There have been several documented cases of it as recent as the past few months. Also, some within the fringe arena of Right-wing ideology didn't like the fact that they were, in essence, looking into a mirror and seeing that their words could in fact be the catalyst from which violent actions are born.

The Right is now going to think that they control the DHS. Janet needs to step it up and get her priorities in line.

More from the Washington Times.

No, Not The Ice Cream, The Governor

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has been chosen as the new head of Homeland Security:

Arizona Demcratic Gov. Janet Napolitano has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Barack Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.

Napolitano brings law and order experience from her stint as the Grand Canyon State’s first female attorney general. One of the nation’s most prominent female elected officials, she made frequent appearances on behalf of Barack Obama during the campaign. She was reelected to a second four-year term in 2006.

More from Politico.

While Gov. Napolitano is going to get hits from the Right simply because she didn't build a border fence herself with razor wire, electronic surveilance, and lazers, it's the people in Arizona that seem more upset about what she has left them.

She was considered to be, in some circles, the person that could end John McCain's Senate career. But now, her state is going to fall under Republican rule, and that has some people less than pleased.

However, one thing that Gov. Napolitano will hopefully bring to the DHS is something that it lacked since it's inception, credibility.

Essentially, the DHS is more security "theatre" than actual security.

The main complaint coming from conservatives really doesn't hold much water, as illegal immigration seemed the last thing on the minds of existing DHS employees.