From the Northwest Front's Homeland Blog.
National coverage of the bomb planted in Spokane, Washington, on MLK Day remains almost as mysterious as the fairly sophisticated bomb itself. The FBI says the case falls "in the sphere of domestic terrorism" and involved "some political or social agenda." By the time that news gets to my local paper, the New York Times, it's on page A15, which means buried.
It's important to remember that we don't know anything yet about who did this or why, whether they're connected to a larger group or what motivated them. In the Pacific Northwest, an attempted assault like this immediately brings to mind the region's thriving Aryan movement. In 1996, white supremacists were indicted for a 1996 bomb at Spokane City Hall, the same month someone bombed a Spokane newspaper and bank.
More recently, across the Idaho line in Coeur D'Alene, white supremacists been picketing Mexican food carts and generally making a ruckus. That doesn't mean they had anything to do with the MLK bomb, by any measure. But the white supremacists are certainly watching, and they know they're being watched. Rachel Maddow tweeted this posting about it from the white supremacists of the Northwest Front, on their Homeland Blog. As she pointed out, they provided a link to our story with no other comment. Their post is filed under "activism," whatever that indicates.
All of this has so far played out to very, very little response outside the region. The local Spokane Spokesman-Review is asking its readers whether the news of a remote-control bomb that appeared to target the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Unity March should in fact be of national interest, since so far it isn't. Short answer? Yes.
Longer? "An anti-personel explosive device planted along the route of a parade honoring a fallen civil rights leader (THE greatest civil rights leader) in a region with a history Aryan and neo-Nazi activity," the second of two commenters writes. "Yeah…..I personally think that to be just a LITTLE more newsworthy than Sarah Palin trying to paint herself as the true victim of Tucson."
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I live in Coeur d'Alene and I didn't know we had a "thriving Aryan movement". I thought we got rid of them when Richard Butler lost his compound in a court judgement, left the area, and subsequently died. His people left the area. If they are back, I haven't seen them. I don't get the paper because it is such a right-wing rag so if someone has been picketing the V E R Y few mexican food carts, I haven't heard or seen it. Although I will admit this is a very "white" area with little tolerance for diversity.
Thanks so much for writing in.
Do you ever read the Huckleberries blog that's associated with the Spokane paper? That's where I saw the news about the pickets at the Mexican food carts.
Yes, I read that also. But it was TWO Mexican food carts and I would guess that is the total # of Mexican Food carts we have in CDA. And it happened ONCE. Every area has a few sickos and we need to discourage them. But this attention makes it sound like we are returning to the Butler days with the celebration of Hitler's birthdy and I don't think that is true. Linking the incident in Spokane to these people is almost like linking the Tucson shooting to Palin until we have some evidence that there is a connection. The few Aryan extremists have been around for years but have not been making much more of a "ruckus" now then they have over the past 10 yrs. Unless evidence that they were connected to the incident in Spokane surfaces, we should ignore them. The attention just emboldens them.
There are 9 active hate groups in ID and 15 in WA. Yes, not as many as say TX with 66, but still it is greater than 0. www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map
No one wants to believe people from their community are backward, hateful, yahoos, but sometimes, they are.
Spokane, WA is on the border with ID and it is a half hour drive to Coeur D'Alene, ID, so it is totally appropriate to look at active hate groups in both WA and ID.
This didn't happen in a vacuum! It happened in a community, in a state and in a region. It is not without context.
It wasn't a "love" bomb. You don't blow people up b/c you love them. It is completely rational to look at hate groups in the region with destructive rhetorical and past criminal activity.
In Western Montana there are some of the old Aryan Nation people that have violent pasts, I used to work with a couple of guys that were around during the Ruby Ridge days. The one of them I only met briefly after he was released from prison for robbing banks to "secede", he now lives in western Montana.
The other had made an underground documentary on Ruby Ridge recording for the Aryan Nation during the stand off, he says he has a letter from Timothy McVeigh in storage in Idaho because McVeigh saw his documentary, as well as helped in David Dukes campaign, I just saw at the Library the other night. He once stayed with me for 2 miserable (his intoxication was a big problem) yet strangely informative months, I learned alot about the Aryan Nations. He still talks to his old friends in the Northwest it sounds like there are plenty of racists groups in that region.
I am a resident of Western Washington, but I don't think this gives me any special credibility over anyone else....
Personally, I don't think the FBI is really equipped, or for that matter focused on preventing this kind of incident. They seem to be concentrating all of their attention towards literally manufacturing terrorist plots and entrapping anyone they can find who has roots or origins in the middle east into taking part in carrying them out, for obvious reasons (think Dick Cheney and the war on terror).
Now that we appear to have a new wave of domestic terrorisim, I seriously doubt that any serious attention will be paid to it (outside of its more dramatic aspects when it succeeds).
I think I am going to vomit
This has been on the radar of Homeland Security and the intelligence community for some time. Example of Secretary Napolitano comments:
www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1288025444400.shtm
Yes Mr. Smarty Pants, however consider that this bomb has been acknlowldged as being as sophisticated an anti-personel device as any the FBI has ever domestically found.
And of course, don't forget my earlier points. Do you have so much faith in Secretary Nepolitano's PR statement or her competence in dealing with such matters. Thank God for Hometown Security I Guess????
So does anyone want to go some more about how racism and racial violence is something that got sorted out decades ago?
I'm sure there are plenty of people who would just love to do that, and most likely, some of them will appear here.
This is just the sort of topic to attract tr0lls. Set snark banks to frappé.
I'm WAAAY ahead of you Monk. I'll be lucky if I don't get banned, but I don't think playing nice is even an option here.
Exactly...
Monk, Don, & Maggie: Too many avowed liberals don't like to acknowledge it, but there are *pllenty* of people on the right who have forfeited any legitimate claim to even civility, let alone courtesy.
"Truths necessary for our own character must not be suppressed out of tenderness to its calumniators." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1815.
Is that bit of opaque, pompous 18th century-ese supposed to mean something profound? Not everything Jefferson said was a pearl of great price. He could also be a flaming hypocrite:
"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others"
Jefferson most definitely did exercise power over others...*he was a slaveholder*!
On purely emotional level I agree with you, Edgar. There are a lot of things that don't allow for certainty and we have to argue them out and respect other opinions. Other subjects might be more clear-cut but people can still reasonably disagree about the details. But some things are way beyond the line of what's reasonable or what's certain. Racism is one of those things and people who are proponents of racism are not be reasoned with or argued with, but should be firmly rejected and excluded by the rest of us.
The tr0lls who have turned up on this topic are people who I could happily kick hard enough to knock them into another dimension. But, apart from maybe a momentary satisfaction, I don't think that would achieve very much. And I think they actually thrive on abuse. They are moral sewage and it may be enough to just simply make plain that's how we see them. Being merely rude would be a little like pouring maple syrup over peeps.
You say such nice things Monk. You never fail to brighten my day and make me smile, I mean that.
Thank you. But you know, sometimes I'm mostly talking to myself, trying to make myself believe what I'm saying out load rather than listen to the voices inside saying "Just kill the SOBs! It'll be fun! Bwuh-hah-hah-hah!"
Seriously, does everyone have to talk themselves into being rational or is it just me?
Do you generally consider yourself a...reasonable man? Maybe it is reasonable, as well as funny, that some people should be beaten to death with haddock. Some people do deserve to be bitch-slapped, and it is a crying shame that it happens so rarely. And if people want to go on about the necessity of the 2nd amendment in preventing tyranny, I have decided that they are absolutely right after all. The Native Americans forced to walk the Trail of Tears should have all been armed and wiped out the American cavalry and taken it all the way up to Andrew Jackson who was a homicidal maniac to begin with. THAT was clearly an undeniable act of tyranny. Trained hardened soldiers forced to make an equivalent trek refer to it as a "death march." The soldiers who did the Bataan death march were pussies because they didn't do it with their children, women and grandparents. The Native American did.
A digression:
One of the many things that still pisses me off about the Bush43 Administration is the introduction of the word "Homeland" into everyday use.
Prior to those guys, we knew anybody who used the word "Homeland" with reference to the USA and who did so with a straight face was a person to be avoided.
I would not be at all surprised if, ummm, certain people started openly using the term "Fatherland" and if the MSM (in general) let them get away with it. :-(
I remember what a cringe worthy word Homeland seemed at the time. Sure hope somewhere along the line it gets changed.
"Homeland" is much too close to "Fatherland" for my taste. I avoid using the word in polite company, or anywhere else for that matter.
@just-john How does the word homeland piss you off. If I used the word homeland to describe where I lived I should be avoided? How did this topic even come up. The article is a bout a bomb that was found, that we are already assuming was politically or socially motivated or that white supremists were responsible. Jeez. Come on people.
Honest to god? When people use words like 'Homeland' and 'Motherland' I think of the anti-foreign movements like the National British Party and other far-right Aryan groups. It's the same sort of language people use to suggest that we're being 'invaded' and other anti-minority rhetoric.
Nationalism usually comes at the price of our cultural identity- "You can't be American and support -this-" or "You can't be American and disagree with -that-".
There's a reason why Palin and co's uber-patriot speech makes people uncomfortable.
Yes, just who are the "rill" 'mericans?
Americans are all over the world. Should they also have a right to safety?
And just why are we saying that we need to "wall" ourselves off from those on our southern border? Wouldn't an economically healthy Mexico be a better goal?
Re: How did this topic even come up.
Note that I started my post with "A digression:"
I hope this goes toward clearing up your confusion.
When people talk about who is a "real American" and who is not, I'm reminded of this 1947 US government training film called "Don't Be a Svcker"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=23X14HS4gLk
Hey Rachel ever think about finding out about those Niger Documents and the who what where of the false intelligence running up to that horrific invasion? Oh I know "lean forward" Forget about accountability.
It seems like this country descends further toward the status of banana republic each and every week. We appear to be returning to the days of political assassinations, and domestic terrorism is on the rise. And we have the unmitigated gall to tell Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the world how to be "civilized"??? At the root of all of this, it matters less WHO is doing these things than the fact that they are happening in the first place. Can anyone imagine someone trying to assassinate a congresswoman just 5 years ago? When was the last time anyone heard of a bomb being left on the route of a parade? This country is tearing itself apart, and all we get is both sides pointing the finger at each other. In other words, Nero will continue to fiddle while Rome burns. My disappointment and frustration in America, its leaders, and its citizens grows with each passing day. In the end, any "winner" that emerges from this growing struggle will end up inheriting a country that is destroyed in every meaningful way. I guess if you are into Pyrrhic victories, that is ok, but I was kind of hoping my country would have greater aspirations than becoming a large-scale version of Somalia.
Wait a minute! You can't get away with saying recent events are new, Uffdaguy...in the span of a few years in the 1960s a President, an Attorney General, MLK himself, and quite a few others were assassinated in this very same country you now think is descending into chaos. Bombs killing innocent civilians are nothing new to the USA either. Did you just wake up? Lament these violent patterns if you will, but don't tell us they are unprecendented -- they are very, very representative of the country we live in, our Homeland.
If you read my post, you will see that I said RETURNING to the days of political assassination, meaning it had happened before, and I was specifically thinking of the events you mentioned. We had descended into chaos in that time, (I was alive and experienced it at the time), and I believe we are once again descending into that kind of period. I never said the recent events were unprecedented, and I would thank you to not put words in my mouth. If you believe that assassinations and bombings are just a normal part of life in our Homeland, (oh, how I detest that term), then it would seem you are symptomatic of the problem.
I live in Calgary, Alberta and we get our US Networks from Spokane. While trying to watch Glenn Beck on the Today Show tell us he's all about peace and forgiveness it was interrupted by live coverage of another suspicious package in Spokane this morning, turned out to be just a suitcase full of clothes. KHQ in Spokane did say that the AP and Seattle Times are reporting an anonymous source from the FBI is calling the MLK bomb the most potentially destructive and sophisticated device discovered in the US! So it sounds like the story is growing, I did notice CNN has put the attempted bomb on the bottom scroll this morning and I think it's due to TRMS.
I feel like we have heard much over the years about White Supremacists in nearby (to Spokane) Idaho. I always think of Spokane as a small and community loving city I can't imagine something of this magnitude happening in such a seemingly pleasant place.
Why is Beck on the Today show? He represents a small fringe element of society that he hypes up on fear of the "others". Isn't it better to shun him and his ilk?
I know it's total BS for Beck to be on Main Stream Media. We've also seen people like Ann Coulter on these morning shows. They constantly harp about what they call Main Stream Media but will happily go there when plugging a book, I am also reminded of Palin being interviewed by Barbara Walters recently. They hate the media until they feel the need for more publicity, total hypocrites. Beck would not answer the question about him calling Progressives Nazis and Fascists but deferred to the co-author "psychologist" he is touring with. Totally shameful!
Guess you forget all the other s!ck cr@p that has gone on in Spokane like the anti-gay gay Republican they had who was their Mayor: www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/national/08spokane.html
I'm mean really! How many ways can one express self-loathing?
I like Lewis Black's review of Glenn Beck: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1s4fj-5zlk
A shorter longer answer is: An anti-personnel explosive device planted along the route of a parade - any parade - the purpose of which is to kill/maim/injure multiple persons is newsworthy.
The significance of it being an MLK parade is not lost on me, but it could be any person/group with any grievance leaving a device at any parade honoring anything. We - all of us - have to know to be vigilent and able to recognize such a device and that the threat is real wherever you live.
Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
I don't think we should condemn an entire area because
of the actions of small groups within that area.
Has anyone described the bomb's potential? Are we talking
a handful of victims or an Oklahoma City size disaster?
This story should get more attention, regardless.
No one is condemning an entire area, just recognizing that the area does have some hate groups.
Recognizing a fact is not condemnation. It is recognition.
Why is this story not being reported? Both MSNBC and CNN have absolutely NO mention of this on their websites. Afraid to take the chance that the right won't be "civil" any more? Or worried that what happened to Gabrielle Giffords could happen to them? This could be a major story, but the media is treating it with indifference at best. What gives?
The story is not getting adequate attention simply because the bomb did not go off, and nobody got blown to smithereens.
@Uffdaguy: Please let me thank you for an amazing point of view. It was very thought provoking for me, and I actually had to look up the word "Pyrrhic". I have seen the word before (I have a degree in English), but couldn't remember the definition (oh those annoying niggles at the back of your brain.) Your post really sums up my feelings about the state of the country and general populace. Your writing seems akin to how the TRMS show makes me feel.
I have gotten many friends "hooked" on to watching Rachel Maddow. I tried to explain to others how Ms Maddow actually makes my brain synapses jump with joy. I only wish she could farm out some of her fact checking/finding work to someone like me just so I could be a part of the movement to "educate" and "openly discuss" our world.
To the gods and goddesses that control such inquires for a volunteer researcher, please contact me. I'm a willing participant and would love to contribute.
When I look at the news today, I can't help but think about great empires from history and how they collapsed. Though many Americans refuse to think of this country as an empire, it most sure is, the most powerful one in the history of this planet. One indisputable fact is that all empires eventually fall, and it is almost always due to a combination of internal and external factors. I think this country began its death spiral on 9-11, as it goaded an ignorant president and his manipulative advisors into two wars that have bankrupted this country. In order to get and maintain power, they set American upon American, dividing us in ways unseen since the Civil War. They are now reaping what they sow, and even those on the right who think they are going to come out on top will learn that in winning, they destroyed everything they thought the winning would bring them. What good is it to have control of the US when you have bankrupted it and turned its citizens into an ignorant, violent mob?
An even more important consideration...what good is it to have control of the US when that control causes other countries to conclude that the planet isn't big enough for the US and the rest of the world?
@Uffdaguy - I agree with your assessment of empire and would move the beginning of the decline back a bit.
Reagan changed the country from a creditor nation to a debtor nation and in this way surrendered more power and sovereignty than we could have lost in any war, cold or otherwise.
For additional perspective on Reagan's role, you may enjoy reading this article: www.truth-out.org/032009R
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries. The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them. Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries? How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem? And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews. They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white. Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
justnowfork, I think the decision to stop taking your meds was a bad one.
I could barely follow your train of thought, but it appears to me that you are saying that white people are suffering from racism? You seem to have everything completely twisted around, and I don't understand what you mean by a "white" country and a "black" country. Countries are not defined by the percentage of what race lives in them, but by a much different metric.
STOP SPREADING HATE AND LIES!
Wow, looks like you hit a nerve with telling the truth. How about adding "Israel has to open its doors to hordes of Gentiles as well. Seems like those folks that are "promoting" the GENOCIDE of the White Race by forcing us all to "drink the kool-aid", don't want to touch the kool-aid themselves.
My wife is black. If we have any children, they will be called black. What am I suppose to make of either of you redneck peckerwood neo-nazis...hm Sheridan, fork? You never know what horrors lurk in the blood lines of any woman, or man you talk to. Just to be safe, keep it in the family, alright? Like, your mother.
It seems to me that whenever there is a violence related story to discuss...it gets weird...it attracts those whose motto is probably not Peace On Earth Good Will To Humans.
I predicted tr0lls, and here be tr0lls. Ah, for the good old days of electro-shock therapy!
Meddling Monk, quit making me laugh so much - having to explain it to my neighboring rock-pile mates. (I'm still not sure which I like better - set snark banks to frappe, or electro-shock the little b*stards)
If the neighbors get too nosy about the laughter, just blame it on your new anti-psychosis meds. Then give a single, spasmodic twitch.
HAHAHAHA - will do Monk! (why hadn't I thought of that earlier...could have been having so much more fun.)
A very well written synopsis, Laura. I am perplexed at how this has received zero traction in the media. If this was a bomb that was found on a parade route for a Tea-Party parade you wouldn't be able to change the channel without hearing about it on every network. What is the difference between the two? The only difference is the color of skin for the majority of parade goers. This just further proves that we have a long way to go to rectify the discrimination that is abundant in this country.
We can only hope that in the coming days this will receive a more relevant coverage than page A15 of the NYT.
Maybe you can explain why the "mainstream media" would report for months about the alleged rape of the "exotic dancer" in the Duke-LaCrosse case, which turned out to be a BIG LIE. The droning on and on about the "Jenna Six" case. The failure of the Attorney General to prosecute the New Black Panther Party in the Voter intimidation case, the droning on and on about the Rodney King beating... Meanwhile - no mention of the Channon Christian - Christopher Newsom case except in "local" media, No mention of the "Wichita Massacre", no mention of DOJ statistics that show in the year 2005 alone there were over 39,000 instances of black on white rape and less than 10 white on black rape. Yeah, you're right - the "mainstream media" IS BIASED - just 180 out from what you espouse...
Have you any references to share with us, Sheridan?
And, remember, "the voices" don't count.
People like Sheridan and people in the Washington hate groups have to invent a menacing enemy to rationalize to themselves their use of aggression, hate and violence. But the "threat" exists only in their fevered minds.
Mightbealiberal - the mythical "new black panthers" and other fantasies featured on Fox "News" have been thoroughly debunked on sites like Media Matters, Fact Check org, Politifact, etc. It is not a matter of actual basis for their erroneous beliefs, but that they simply choose to believe in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
@Artemis - I am fairly well familiar with the sources that debunk much of what Sheridan claims. However, every now and then I do like to see if there are other reputable sources that may provide an opposing view. Plus, I believe if someone is going to post about underreported news stories or "statistics", that he should provide a reference. I abhor laziness.
@Sheridan - 1) First off, I don't work in the media so I have no control over the sensationalist stories they choose to pursue. 2) I think most people would agree that an entire lacrosse team (or a large number of them, I don't remember all of the details) raping an escort is news worthy (just so happens that she was lying). 3) By espousing the New Black Panther Party battle cry, you show your true brainwashed colors. 4) The Rodney King beating WAS a big deal - several cops used him as a billy club testing dummy (I am from LA, and there was always a culture of law enforcement abuse in the LAPD, which is why the story took on such large legs). The other incidents you reference (without links as pointed out before), I have no knowledge of.
It is a conspiracy to keep the white man down...wait, doesn't the white man still control most of our country (no matter if you define control as high amounts of wealth, power, status, or position in the government)?
The stunning ignorance on display in the last three paragraphs of this article are worthy of Faux News.
I'm in Seattle, not Spokane, but I know this: The vast majority of white supremacy types cleared out of northern Idaho and eastern Washington years ago, ending up in Pennsylvania and other points east. Further, the Spokane area is not some backwater of racist hicks, but a most civilized metropolitan area containing a large, but decreasing, percentage of ultra-conservative people. The great likelihood is that the target of Monday's attempt at terrorism was several thousand presumably liberal or progressive people, with little or no regard for race, ethnicity, or hue.
To tar an entire area with the act of some unidentified would-be domestic terrorist is itself an act of journalistic terrorism: utterly irresponsible. Shame, shame, shame on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. I am more disappointed in them than I can describe.
We don't know, do we, who planted this device. It's all speculation at this point. And speculating, masquerading their speculation as responsible journalism, MSNBC and Ms. Maddow have become the evil they deplore.
Yes, there are only 15 remaining hate groups, but 15 is greater than 0.
Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
Are you actually proposing that it was a love group rather than a hate group?
Are you proposing the MLK fans wanted to blow up their fellow fans?
It was on MLK day, on the MLK parade route, in a region know to have active racist hate groups. People are drawing the most rational and realistic conclusions based on the available data.
Cliff A banned, racism. Looks like Northwest Front is mobilizing on this one. Wild.
I wouldn't mind if they closed the thread
Nor would I.
If you close the thread, they win.
Thank you Progressive Realist! I am a lifelong resident of Spokane. During my lifetime, the region has developed into a progressive urban center of which I can be proud. That's right, I said progressive. With a little bit of research, MSNBC would have found that the City of Spokane itself is in fact more Democratic than Republican, more inclusive than exclusive and much more progressive than regressive. Further, the "thriving" Aryan movement Ms. Maddow refers to in one of her later blogs on this issue in the Pacific Northwest does not exist. Yes, there was an Aryan presence in the region--headquartered in Hayden Idaho-- a very different place than Spokane, Washington. That headquarters was bankrupted over a decade ago, and the vast majority of its followers moved to Utah. Its leader died in 2004. Do we have racists in Spokane? Of course we do--everywhere does. Is it possible that this tragedy was racially motivated? Sure it is. It's also possible it was motivated by any number of other things. It is probable that whoever perpetrated this ugly crime is in fact not from Spokane. This could have happened anywhere.
Unfortunately, it happened in Spokane and the history with the Aryan Nations having been headquartered a decade ago in the state next door makes a sexy story. While I support the larger statement I believe Ms. Maddow is intending to make about race and violence in the United States, using this outdated Aryan Nations angle in order to underscore that point, in the case of Spokane, is actually defeating her purpose. Over the last decade or two the Spokane community has worked diligently to become broadly inclusive and a place where minorities are happy and proud to live. In fact, a couple of extra steps on this story would have uncovered the fact that civil rights leaders across the Spokane region are speaking out loudly in favor of the City and against the continuing erroneous connection with the Aryan Nations. Or, you could ask our female Native American Mayor. Both unlikely possibilities in a City with a thriving Aryan movement, if you ask me.
I'm not arguing that this is not a story worthy of national news. It is and it is scary. All I'm asking is that instead of continuing to run down this path of connecting the city with Aryan Nations, you dig a little on the City itself. Give the City a chance to respond. If this connection continues, it is going to be very hard for the City of Spokane to recover from the hit generated to its reputation by incomplete and inaccurate information.
I've been a fan for quite some time, Rachel. And, I do believe in the overall point you are trying to make. I beg you, however, to reconsider how you are making it--yes, there was a bomb found in Spokane. It needs to be reported. But by continuing to to report it in the way you have, you are (unintentionally, I believe) threatening to undo the very progress you are calling for. Tomorrow night, how about focusing on the progress Spokane has made? It is progress I believe you would wholeheartedly support. As a proud Spokane progressive, I'm in awe of where our city has come from and where it is going to. I just desperately hope this doesn't set that progress back. I believe fully in our local leadership and know that they will do everything they can to continue moving the City forward. As a fan, I hope that you can be a catalyst to that progress rather than an impediment to it.
When I shed tears over this incident, it is not only because of the sadness over the act itself, but largely because my heart is breaking over my hometown being portrayed in this light and the threat it poses to the progress we have worked so very hard for. As the reporting of this story continues, I can only hope that things like Spokane's cutting edge green economy, and its many other positive attributes begin to get some attention as well. I'd suggest you give those that run the City a chance to respond--you might just be surprised at what you hear.
I live in the Pacific North West and heard about this story on your show last night. So far no further mention of it at least locally. Around where I live racial tension is high and really seen starting in the high schools. When my daughter graduated it looked like a scene from the south, with pick up trucks flying the confederate flags and parents cheering them on. I felt sick from it, my daughter cringed and said "that's just the way they are here". I have even gotten racial slams from some of her "friends" that didn't think twice about what they said in my home. Of course they were called on it and promptly left to think about life for a while but its ingrained.
We are originally from California, I joined the service and was stationed in Washington when I got out. This state is no stranger to the fringe of raciesm, and they are definitely still around.
PastorLindstedt banned, racism gimmick trolling.
bryan-2333290 banned, 'go back where you came from' race-trolling, first post on Newsvine was 'brownskins are racist', didn't get much better from there.
Good going Tyler, you're learning.
Thank you Tyler. It is REALLY appreciated.
Thank you tyler!
Man, this one is a magnet. More pro-segregation-by-country derails and rants about the transgressions of 'the jews and the mexicans' from Felix Alfarth at 17. Deleted, banned.
All hail tyler, slayer of tr0lls! (And his +4 Potions of Banning, natch.)
HAIL!
HAIL!
How come y'all'r swearin'? :-)
Here are where the hate groups are www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map
The hate groups in Spokane are based in pseudo-Christian movements: www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=WA
So they probably also believe their racism is ordained by g-d
That is the Christian Identity Movement. Its bull**it.
collapsed by the community is not NEARLY enough.
It seems that god is more of an excuse for abhorrent behavior in our country (not on the whole), rather than a way to save someone's soul.
Check out the political compass www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008
Nearly all American politicians are AUTHORITARIAN-RIGHT. There are no true "leftists, communists or socialist" in American politics.
Even to get slightly left of center and slightly south of authoritarian, you have to go to Kucinich in the Democratic party or McKinney (former Democrat), the Green Party candidate. And there is Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-professed Social Democrat.
I know hate groups like to imagine that they are the victims of hoards of "leftists" but they just DO NOT EXIST!
If you think hoards of "leftists" do exist and they are oppressing you, seek help! You may have Delusion Disorder or other mental illness.
You want to know who is responsible for this bomb? Look no further than Feds directed out of the "threat fusion" center.
Don't know what "threat fusion" centers are?
YouTube: Ventura Threat Fusion
Google the following:
Threat Fusion Executive Summary
Threat Fusion veterans terrorists
Florida Threat Fusion martin Luther King terrorist
Threat Fusion students terrorists
Anyone see the group of guys on Government way in Coeur d'Alene Idaho? They were carrying signs that read "Honk to Keep Idaho White". Lotsa honkin' goin on there.
Goddamn honkees [he said with absolutely no sense of irony.]
www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=ID
www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=WA
Good job to whoever spotted the backpack. Apparently the builder/killer knew what they were doing. It was more than standard a pipe bomb.
If you see it, say it.
Talk about lack of coverage, a BMW blew up in Arlington, VA last week. I think that it only received one day of coverage here in the DC area. Explosives in the trunk, People were arrested, ZERO information.
who+dares+wings uses a standard FRight-wing tactic, shift blame to the victim.
Hope that demonizing the victim/s distracts you from their own culpability.
Really reprehensible.
Since Gabby's attack, I can't shake what we learned from the Hutaree militia arrests in March, 2010. Namely their strategy, which mirrored the strategy often used by insurgents in Iraq, ie. instigate a deadly action expecting a result that pits different factions against each other, thereby giving advantage to the perps.
In Gabby's case, I think there may be more to learn about the perp's connection to other like-minded psychos. Possibly from gamers in-game chat room communications as other subversives have been known to use for communicating.
This case in Spokane seems to have a similar kind of strategy signature as is often used in Iraq.
And Madrid and London. But I don't think that Muslim radicals are behind the Spokane attempt. And neither do you unless I miss my guess. I just thought that needed to be said plainly.
What are the chances that the expertise that went into the bomb was learned in Iraq or Afghanistan?
Not a single, solitary clue. The bomb-maker could have learned from those conflicts without actually having traveled there. I suppose. I mean, the Times Square bomber (failed) went all the way to Pakistan in order to learn how not to make a working bomb, so maybe someone could stay put and learn how to make a proper one. At this point we can only speculate ourselves silly.
I was suspecting another Timothy McVeigh.
I strongly suspect that if the heat gets too high about this attempted bombing, there will be people who start trying to blame Muslims (if they haven't started already).
That's very possible. One very good way to learn how to make a bomb is by learning how to dismantle bombs. So possibly, assuming white supremacists, the bomb maker could not only be a vet but one who's job in the military involved IEDs and that and has now turned that experience on it's head.
That's my fear.
Read and learn, Ms. Maddow, along with your MSNBC colleagues:
There's nothing after your colon, there.
Oh, wait, there's this very comment! You must be psychic or something!