Mario Piperni dot Com

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Crooks and Liars wonders why this story has not received national attention.

On May 10th, a middle-aged man carried a can of gasoline and a pipe bomb into the Jacksonville Islamic Center of Northeast Florida during evening prayers and detonated it. Fortunately, there were no injuries to people, though the bomb did damage property.

The surveillance video above gives a fairly decent picture of this man, who is clearly white, middle-aged, and on a mission.

The local news is all over it, of course. WOKV.com reports the FBI investigating it as a hate crime and possible domestic terrorism.

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Anti-Muslim sentiments in Florida have been bubbling to the surface, particularly after Republican Dan Fanelli’s campaign commercial was aired asking if a man appearing to be from the Middle East “looked like a terrorist.” According to Yahoo News, there were two other ads with even more pointed messages against Muslims

A few thoughts…

- While this story played locally in Jacksonville, there’s been nothing from the big boys.  Why?  Has everyone become so blase about hate crimes, that they are no longer worthy of media attention?

- Anti-Muslim hate speech by hate-mongers is going to eventually get innocent people killed while doing nothing to make anyone safer.

- As has been abundantly clear since 9/11, radical Islamic terrorism hurts Muslims more than it does anyone else.  Aside from the tens of thousands Iraqis and Afghans killed in the two wars, millions of others are subjected to scorn and abuse by individuals in need of an excuse to exercise their bigoted ways.

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Saw this ad from Saudi Arabia over at the DailyDish in what Sullivan calls Creepy Ad Watch.  Translation follows video.

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The written lines at the end say “Do not use your silence as a weapon against innocent people” and “Say no to terrorism.” The audio translates to “As you stand idly by terrorists and extremists, you only encourage them to continue the killing and destruction”.

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Q. If terrorists attacks are easy to pull off, why do we not see more of them?

There are actually several answers to this question. One, terrorist attacks are harder to pull off than popular imagination — and the movies — lead everyone to believe. Two, there are far fewer terrorists than the political rhetoric of the past eight years leads everyone to believe. And three, random minor terrorist attacks don’t serve Islamic terrorists’ interests right now.

Bruce Schneier delves deeper into each of these reasons.

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You could have seen this one coming. Republicans bitching about the Times Square bomber being read his Miranda rights.  First there was the increasingly irrelevant John McCain

“Obviously that would be a serious mistake…at least until we find out as much information we have.”

“Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about.”

What total idiocy.  The suspect is an American citizen.  They HAVE to read him his rights or risk having all evidence thrown out of court.

Steve Benen puts it into perspective.

Look, I know McCain’s in a tough primary and has to prove himself to the far-right, but this Miranda-related demagoguery is growing stale.

Najibullah Zazi was Mirandized, and the entire case went beautifully. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was Mirandized, and the results have been excellent. When shoe bomber Richard Reid was taken into custody, the Bush/Cheney administration read him his rights five minutes after he was taken off the plane he tried to blow up, and McCain never said a word. It’s been standard practice, especially with American citizens upon their arrest, for years — spanning administrations of both parties.

Can’t McCain just let the grown-ups do what they do without offering suggestions from the peanut gallery? The Joint Terrorism Task Force caught the suspect 48 hours after the attempted bombing; the frequently-confused Arizonan should probably trust them to know how best to proceed.

Republican Rep. Peter King chimed in with his worthless two cents.

“Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still.”

Which all leads us to the following observation.

Yesterday, when the primary suspect in the attempted bombing of Times Square was a middle-aged white guy, Republican leaders were the picture of calm, sober leadership. High-ranking Republicans on committees related to national security like Pete Hoekstra and Peter King urged people not to jump to conclusions, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised New Yorkers for not succumbing to fear.

That was yesterday. Today, as in the aftermath of the failed underwear bombing on Christmas Day, Republicans are eager to give that power back. With the Justice Department announcing the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born American citizen and Connecticut resident in connection with the failed plot, Republicans have returned to their usual script.

One word. Race.
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