Mac at Go Fish does the rant so I don't have to:
So....is declassifying the news that Jose Padilla planned to blow up apartment buildings [according to the government] supposed to make me respect Padilla's rights as a U.S. citizen less? I don't care if he planned to stick dynamite up the Vice President's ass and burn the White House to the ground, he doesn't deserve to be sitting in detention for two fucking years without access to a lawyer or his right to a speedy trial.
You know, Padilla might be guilty of something. But given the government's track record, I'm tempted to say that the fact that they claim something is true is prima facie evidence that it's not. (For other examples, see Mayfield, Brandon and Yee, Capt. James.) I heard on the radio Ashcroft's story now is that Padilla really wanted to explode a dirty bomb but his al Qaeda contacts told him to leave the gas on in apartments and try to blow up the buildings that way. What the fuck?? Does that sound like the superterrorist organization at work to you? It's like they told him to not bus his own tray when he eats at McDonalds.
In other terrorism-related hilarity, today the Philadelphia police shut down a wide swath of center city because they found two cassette tapes attached to light poles near City Hall. There were paper airplanes attached to the poles, too, pointing toward the cassettes. (Loony, or what?) The detail I enjoyed most was that a Philadelphia police officer concluded they were suspicious by listening to one of the tapes in his patrol car (cop cars have tape decks?) and deciding the voice on the tape was speaking in a "Middle Eastern language." Obviously, despite their seemingly limited grasp of English, Philly cops are polyglots who can identify the region of origin of a spoken foreign language. Right. I've got $10 here that says the tapes were left by one of my city's many, many religious wackos.
Welcome to America, where every terrorist threat is a joke or a lie, except the one that kills you. Don't worry, we'll hold a commission about that one.
I must have missed that bit of fun. My money is on the crazy homeless guy who yells into the pay phone on the corner of 18th & Chestnut.
Posted by: mac | June 02, 2004 at 03:57 PM
Oooh, I love that guy! He jams the receiver to his ear and yells into it, like he's having a conversation with someone nearly-deaf, and he's always arguing with them about something.
Posted by: Mithras | June 02, 2004 at 04:07 PM
Terror threats are a lie? That's interesting. I remember watching nearly 3,000 innocent people be killed. But that was probably staged! They did in a Hollywood studio with Bush's media friends.
Posted by: restaurant jobs | August 05, 2004 at 12:41 PM
Hmmm, good point. Since 9/11 changed everything, it also changed logic, evidence and common sense. You are a True Patriot.
Also, I don't like people spamming unrelated stuff on my site, so I am altering your url. Have a nice day, asshole.
Posted by: Mithras | August 05, 2004 at 01:08 PM