Warrants? We don't need no stinkin' warrants!

Yesterday as Unnamed Partner and I were out doing errands, she saw a traffic camera and expressed her concern that our privacy and civil liberties are being infringed upon. I said that I don't actually mind the traffic cameras so much, because at least we can see them. Such as the one, for example, to which she had just flipped the bird. I'm more outraged at the many insidious, covert things the government is doing. I was referring, of course, to warrantless wiretapping. I didn't even know this was going on:

The US postal service approves more than 10,000 requests from US law enforcement each year to record names, addresses and other information from the outside of packages every year, according to information released through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The warrantless surveillance mail program -- as it is known -- requires only the approval of the US Postal Inspection Service Director, and not a judge.

Since 1998, the inspector has approved more than 97% of requests during criminal inquiries, new documents show. According to USA Today, which filed the request, "In 2004, 2005 and 2006, the most recent year provided, officials granted at least 99.5% of requests."

The irony, of course, is that while all of these activities come in the name of fighting terrorism, I'm becoming increasingly terrified of our federal government.

Yes America, you should be afraid ... of the Republicans

Prepare to be frightened tonight when President Bush gives his state of the union address. He will try to frighten you by saying "9/11, 9/11, 9/11." But even more frightening is the bill he wants Congress to pass, which extends the expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). From ThinkProgress:

This afternoon, “the Senate will vote on whether to cut off debate about reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV) is working against the motion, and it is expected that Republicans will not have the 60 votes needed to end the discussion.”

Democratic support of the bill is contentious due to the inclusion of retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies, so Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is pushing for a temporary extension of the expiring legislation in order to reach a compromise. But President Bush is threatening to veto it.

Big man on campus is thumping his chest, posturing before he gives his speech tonight. And now he has his lackeys lined up in the Senate. I nearly drove off the road this morning when I heard this on NPR this morning:

Speaking to NPR today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell bellowed that “the American people should be frightened”:

It’s not about frightening the American people. The American people should be frightened and remember full well what happened on 9/11. They also remember with gratitude that this has not happened again for six years.

And no matter what your opinion of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, give them both credit for returning to Washington today to vote on this important issue. (That's right -- they both have day jobs, don't they?)

Saudi gang-rape victim is jailed, appeals conviction, now sentenced to 200 lashes

While the Bush Administration media machine attempts to convince the American people that things are going great in Iraq and democracy is spreadin' round the world, Saudi Arabia — you know, home of the real 9/11 terrorists — continues in its archaic and inhumane treatment of women:

An appeal court in Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of lashes and added a jail sentence as punishment for a woman who was gang-raped.

According to the Arab News newspaper, the 19-year-old woman, who is from Saudi Arabia's Shia minority, was gang-raped 14 times in an attack in the eastern province a year-and-a-half ago.

But the victim was also punished for violating Saudi Arabia's laws on segregation that forbid unrelated men and women from associating with each other. She was initially sentenced to 90 lashes for being in the car of a strange man.

On appeal, the Arab News reported that the punishment was not reduced but increased to 200 lashes and a six-month prison sentence.

The Bush Administration has long been willing to overlook transgressions by the Saudis. After all, there is a long and well-documented history between the Bush family and the Saudi royal family. So despite the fact that most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that six years later the Saudis continue to funnel millions to al Qaeda, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is repeatedly cited for human rights violations such as the woman mentioned above, the Bushes do HEART them some Saudi Arabia.

After all, blood is thicker than water, but oil is the thickest of them all ....

Your daily dose of outrage: British police "taser" man in coma ("He looked Egyptian ...")

From today's BBC comes another disturbing story of police abuse of Taser guns.

A man who had gone into a diabetic coma on a bus in Leeds was shot twice with a Taser gun by police who feared he may have been a security threat.

Mr Gaubert said he was on his way to meet friends when he suffered a fit on the bus and slipped into a coma which left him slumped on his seat clutching his rucksack.

Armed police were called to the bus depot in Headingley and when he failed to respond to their challenges he was shot with the Taser.

He said as this was happening, another officer was pointing a real gun at his head.

He was restrained and eventually came round in the police van.

He said it was only then that the officers realised it was a medical emergency, despite him wearing a medical tag round his neck to warn of his condition, and took him to hospital.

Mr Gaubert said he was told the police believed he looked "Egyptian".

I've written previously about what I think about Taser guns. I understand they have a purpose: as an alternative to deadly force. As in, if someone is waving a knife or a gun and is an immediate threat to themselves or to others. An unresponsive man slumped down in his bus seat does not fit this situation.

Most fake bombs missed by screeners

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I am no fan of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It's not that I don't think airline security is a good idea — of course it is. But my personal experience, and that of everyone I talk to, is that the current restrictions in place on ordinary travelers do little if anything to make us any safer. Instead, rules such as no more than 3 oz. of liquids in your carry-on luggage and removing your shoes for screening seem more like attempts at making the public feel safer by having us experience these “safety” restrictions firsthand.

So I'm not really surprised to read in USA Today that while the TSA screeners are busy throwing out your 6 oz. bottle of shampoo, they're missing the real safety threats:

Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.

Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

Among the “explosives” missed by the TSA screeners:

• Detonator and explosives hidden in briefcase lining

• Inert explosives inside CD players

• Fake dynamite and timer in toiletry kit

• Phony plastic explosive and battery inside hollowed-out book

But remember, they pulled me aside for my granola bar! You can read more here.

I will pray for peace today

On this day, it's hard to know what to write. I thought about it all morning on my drive to work, and I have so much running through my head that I don't know where to start — or where to end up.

Six years ago I was a Special Education teacher in a middle school in Baltimore. I didn't see a whole lot of what was going on in “real time,” because I was mostly trying to calm scared kids. At the same time, I was worried about my parents and brother who live only a few miles from the Pentagon, and my other brother who worked only a few miles from the Pentagon. Only later did I find out that my uncle and his wife were in New York City, and that he was getting ready to go pick up his photos from the camera shop in the first floor of the World Trade Center. (He had not yet left to pick up the pictures when the first plane hit, so thank God he was safe. Someone found the pictures many months later and tracked him down in Arizona to return them to him!)

So mostly what I remember from that day is the anxiety, worry, and effort to reassure the kids that they were safe with us at school. (Which became harder as more and more parents came and took their kids out of school. The ones left behind got, understandably, a little paranoid as they day wore on.)

And then when I went home, my partner and I watched the news and just couldn't even process what was going on. It was a strange place to be, geographically, because we were so close to DC, and pretty close to Pennsylvania and New York, too. So there was this fear hanging over us: will we be next? (Which is, of course, the whole idea behind terrorism.)

Six years later, I've had many cases of the “six degrees of separation” syndrome. I have met people who had a son in the Towers who barely escaped, people who had a meeting at the Pentagon that they missed, and a dear friend of a dear friend who's husband was killed at the Pentagon — days before his wife was due to have their baby. At the same time, many other friends who work in DC looked out their windows and saw the smoke rising across the river at the Pentagon.

And my cousin was sitting on a bench on the National Mall, trying to absorb what was going on (there was nowhere to go, anyway, as the city was basically shut down), and a reporter from the New York Times stopped to interview him.

Six years later, and we live under more security and regulation than ever before. And I don't feel any safer today than I did on that day in the classroom with those scared kids. We are occupying and fighting in a country that has become a breeding ground for the very type of people who attacked us on September 11 — but it is very important to remember that when we entered Iraq, the actual people who attacked us had no connection there. Al Qaida has since moved in to take advantage of the power vacuum we created when we ousted Saddam Hussein. So, since September 11, we attacked a country that had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks of September 11, and created haven for the terrorists who did attack us.

So I will pray for peace today. And I will pray for all the 3,000 people who died in this country on September 11, 2001. And I will pray for the people of Iraq, where 3,000 people are killed every three months. And I will pray for our military service men and women, 3,771 3,774 of whom have died since we invaded Iraq.

I will pray for peace today.

"It’s kind of humiliating to watch an American President get rolled by a two bit, corrupt petty shaykh"

Last week in Anbar Province, President Bush made time to visit some of his shadiest friends in the area. From Think Progress,

During his “surprise visit” to Iraq earlier this month, President Bush met with Sattar Abu Risha, the head of the Anbar Salvation Council who “has a rather unsavory reputation as one of the shadiest figures in the Sunni community.” Time magazine wrote that “Sheikh Sattar, whose tribe is notorious for highway banditry, is also building a personal militia, loyal not to the Iraqi government but only to him.” Marc Lynch writes, “It’s kind of humiliating to watch an American President get rolled by a two bit, corrupt petty shaykh.”

Read more here.

Suicide bombers in Iraq are mostly foreigners

From the McClatchy News Service:

WASHINGTON — Suicide bombers in Iraq are overwhelmingly foreigners bent on destabilizing the government and undermining American interests there, two independent studies have concluded.

The studies report that the number of suicide bombings in Iraq has now surpassed those conducted worldwide since the early 1980s. The findings suggest that extremists from throughout the region and around the world are fueling Iraq's violence.

“The war on terrorism — and certainly the war in Iraq — has failed in decreasing the number of suicide attacks and has really radicalized the Muslim world to create this concept of martyrs without borders,” said Mohammed Hafez, a visiting professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the author of one of the two studies.

Hafez, whose new book is “Suicide Bombers in Iraq,” has identified the nationalities of 124 bombers who attacked in Iraq. Of those, the largest number — 53 — were Saudis. Eight apiece came from Italy and Syria, seven from Kuwait, four from Jordan and two each from Belgium, France and Spain. Others came from North and East Africa, South Asia and various Middle Eastern and European countries. Only 18 — 15 percent — were Iraqis.

Read more here.

Our bridges collapse, as we spend our money on war

The tragic events in Minnesota this week should be a wake-up call for all of us. The billions of dollars that we spend every month on the War in Iraq are coming from somewhere, and repair of our aging infrastructure is one of those areas.

Many of our nation's highways and bridges were built in the late 1950s and 1960s. There was a mad rush to build at the time for several reasons. The Cold War mentality that had us jump under our school desks for nuclear war drills (and just what was that supposed to do?) recognized that in the event of a nuclear bomb attack, we would need to be able to evacuate our cities quickly. Large scale interstates were built under the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956.

President Eisenhower was a proponent of building these highways, based on his experiences in World War II. However, even earlier, federal planning for a nationwide highway system began in 1921 when the Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide it with a list of roads it considered necessary for national defense, resulting in the Pershing Map.

Interestingly, our current national mental state of a “war on terror” has not brought a similar rush to build or rebuild the infrastructure. This, even though we have seen the congestion and resulting danger on September 11 in New York City. Money is spent on a wide range of “security” items, from cameras to polo shirts that identify rescue workers. But was anything spent to make it easier to get out of NYC in the event of a disaster (either natural or man-made)?

From The Raw Story:

The American Society of Civil Engineers warned in a report two years ago that between 2000 and 2003, more than 27 percent of the nation's almost 600,000 bridges were rated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

“America must change its transportation behavior, increase transportation investment at all levels of government, and make use of the latest technology,” the society's wide-reaching “Report Card for America's Infrastructure” added.

In my city of Baltimore, there is a new push for “traffic calming,” which I endorse because people speed and it's dangerous. The main artery near my house just had millions spent on it to add median islands and curbs that narrow the road, so that in many places cars must merge into one lane north or south.

That's fine, except that this is also marked with little blues signs that say “evacuation route.” Oh my. I'd better start clearing some space underneath my desk again ....

Was Pat Tillman Murdered? AP Gets New Documents

AP reports, via Common Dreams:

Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

“The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

As American citizens, we're being bombarded with so many fantastic stories it's almost hard to take them all seriously. I mean, I watch Alberto Gonzales testify before Congress, and almost cannot believe my eyes and ears. He is so blatantly lying, it truly is almost beyond belief.

And now details are emerging about Pat Tillman's death that are also beyond belief. The medical evidence does not match up with the story we were all told about his last moments. It's not even close.

Read the rest of the story here.

TSA protecting you from seniors with bad backs

From ABC News:

An unsuspecting senior citizen from Long Island, N.Y. is behind one of the incidents that prompted the TSA to issue a bulletin last week about cases in which they suspect terrorists may have been probing airport security by trying to bring peculiar items on board airplanes.

In her case, Sara Weiss tried to bring ice packs on her flight home.

“I'm not a terrorist. I'm just a 66-year-old woman who's coming back from visiting her son and I have a bad back, so I carry these things,” Weiss told ABC News' Lisa Stark.

...

Security officers then took her to the bowels of the San Diego airport for three hours of questioning by airport police and others. The first questions stunned her.

“The first thing he said after introducing himself was, 'Do you know Osama bin Laden?' And I thought, 'What?,'” Weiss said.

Oh good lord. Read the rest of the story here.

[UPDATED] About those terrorist “dry runs” ... Ummm, not so much

When the Transportation Safety Administration released a safety bulletin last week, it referred to several “recent suspicious incidents” under the sensational headline, “Incidents at U.S. Airports May Suggest Possible Pre-Attack Probing.” Unfortunately, there's a little discrepancy between the bulletin and reality. Notice the highlights I've made in the two descriptions of this event.

From the July 20th, 2007, official TSA bulletin:

5 July 2007, San Diego, CA–A U.S. Person’s (USPER) checked baggage contained two icepacks covered in duct tape. The icepacks had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

However, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego Harbor Police Chief Kirk Sanfilippo said that wasn't exactly the case. In fact, it's not accurate at all:

Sanfilippo said a routine swab test of the bag indicated the presence of a chemical that is sometimes used in explosives or medications. Inside the luggage, inspectors found cold packs, wrapped in clear packing tape, that were old and leaking.

Sanfilippo said they weren't covered in duct tape and didn't have clay inside of them. “It is a little bit off,” he said of the bulletin.

The chief said a Harbor Police officer found what appeared to be hardened old gel that had seeped out of the ice packs and dried, leaving a clay-like substance around the outside edge of the pack.

I don't know if the Bush Administration thinks that we will all live in a constant state of fear and therefore follow their lead without question. My personal reaction is becoming one of total disbelief in all of these possible terrorist activity stories. And I'm not so sure that's such a great thing either, to be so jaded that I don't take any of it seriously anymore.

Everyone knows the story of the little boy who cried “wolf,” don't they?

UPDATE

As for the cheese incident (not to be mistaken for the String Cheese Incident) at BWI airport, that too is now sounding like an exaggeration of the facts. Today's Baltimore Sun reports that officials are trying to downplay the reports of a possible dry run by terrorists. Although the TSA bulletin has a picture of a block of cheese with some kind of electronic device apparently taped to it inside some plastic, I personally doubt that is a photo of the actual items in question from the BWI incident. According to the Sun:

... a couple's checked baggage contained a block of processed cheese and a charger for a DVD player, which might have substituted for bomb components.

Jonathan Green, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, said “Every indication was that they were not a threat as passengers.”

It sounds to me like this couple had in their luggage: (1) a block of cheese, and (2) a DVD charger. But not that they were necessarily attached to each other. So this photo distributed by the TSA with their bulletin on July 20th seems more than a little misleading:


Am I getting paranoid? What are your thoughts on this?

TSA: blocks of cheese raising concern

An interesting news bit following the announcement by the Transportation Security Administration that it will begin allowing passengers to carry on lighters. An unclassified (but not meant for public distribution) TSA bulletin was obtained by the press yesterday which said that terrorists may be conducting "dry runs" at several airports in the US.

Among the incidents mentioned in the TSA bulletin:

Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person’s carry on baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.

Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple’s checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

The TSA released another statement today that states this information is simply routine and that "There is no intelligence that indicates a specific or credible threat to the homeland."

But personally, I think we can expect a ban on all dairy products to come very soon.

TSA lifts ban on some items

Air travel today is truly an Alice in Wonderland experience. And now, we're truly going down the rabbit hole. The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it will lift the ban on ... lighters?! Are you kidding me?!

As of Aug. 4, disposable butane lighters, such as Bics, and refillable lighters, like Zippos, will be allowed in your carry-on luggage. The reason given for the change in policy is apparently that it takes too much time and costs too much money to deal with the lighters:

"Explosives remain the most significant threat to aviation," said TSA administrator Kip Hawley. "By enabling our officers to focus on the greatest threats, we are using our officers' time and energy more effectively and increasing security for passengers."

Lighters are the leading item seized at airport checkpoints, an average of more than 22,000 a day. It costs TSA $4 million a year to dispose of them because they contain hazardous materials.

I just experienced this insane world of "airport security," and let me tall ya, I didn't see any lighters being confiscated, but I saw a whole lot of shampoo, lotion, water bottles, and two full cups of perfectly good Dunkin Donuts coffee bought mere feet from the security checkpoint. (And I'm still mad about that coffee!) So I'm not sure I buy this argument that the lighters are such a hassle. My cup of coffee is more dangerous than a lighter?

I'm sorry, but I see no reason for lighters to be allowed on a plane. What possible use would a passenger have for a lighter on a plane? They cannot smoke on the plane, or even in most airports. If there is no public outcry about this, I think I will just move to Canada or something. I mean, there we all are, standing in line at the security checkpoint: barefoot, a quart-size baggie in our hand with 3.4 oz of shampoo (I also must "declare" my bottle of saline solution), moving through the line like sheep.

Kurt Vonnegut, god rest your soul.

Apparently, we're making progress in Iraq

In case you don't believe me, watch the following video. You'll feel oh so comforted.

Lying liars and the lies they tell

Talk about pants on fire! Yesterday President Bush told an outright lie to an invited audience at a town hall meeting in Cleveland. In his brief mention on the Iraq war, Bush said:

“The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims.”

How wrong is he? Jonathan Landay at McClatchy Newspapers has debunked Bush's statements thusly:

1) Prior To The War, Al Qaeda Was Not Operating In Iraq.
2) Even Now, Al Qaeda Is Not The Main Source Of Instability.

Think Progress has more, including video of the President's speech.

Meanwhile, remember Osama bin Laden?

Osama bin Laden. He's the one who masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Remember him? We used to hear all about him. In 2005, CNN did a huge special report you can read here. The report refers back to a September 15, 2001, article that states, “The 19 men suspected of Tuesday's hijackings were either directly or indirectly linked to Osama bin Laden.”

Osama bin Laden is still on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, although his page there hasn't been updated since 2001. In reality, no one even knows if bin Laden is still alive. ABC news reports:

Earlier this spring, coalition forces in Afghanistan launched a major offensive in the Eastern Kunar province, a lawless frontier area where bin Laden was rumored to be hiding. Just a few days earlier, however, the Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Congress that he believed bin Laden to be in Pakistan. Many experts believe that bin Laden is able to travel somewhat freely between both countries along the border where tribal leaders are quite sympathetic to Al Qaeda. McConnell said just last week, that wherever they are, bin Laden and Zawahiri are still engaging their followers.

Which brings us back to Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an extremely complicated region of the world. Our leaders sent troops in with a grand yet simplistic plan to overtake the enemy (sounds familiar, doesn't it?). And in typical Bush Administration behavior, at same time playing down the actions, as if we don't really care so much about it. In March 2002, Bush was asked about bin Laden at press conference and replied:

And, again, I don't know where he is. I — I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

So while we spend a lot of time right now focusing on bringing our troops home from Iraq, let's not forget that we have soldiers and marines in Afghanistan, also in harm's way because of the misguided policies of the Bush Administration. Today, a suicide bomber killed 17 people in Afghanistan. Look for the story, it's buried in the news. Also look for this from the Associated Press, because it didn't get much airtime, either:

As of Sunday, July 8, 2007, at least 342 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

When all the evidence points to Osama bin Laden as the leader of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and other terrorist acts against the US, it is unconscionable to throw American lives and money into a misguided war in Iraq. The Iraq war was initiated on the basis of lies and deceit by President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Please join me in calling for their impeachment.

"Creature Comforts" takes on the Iraq War

I think Rumsfeld's my favorite, but Condie's pretty good, too. Enjoy.

4 years since "Bring 'em on"

Four years ago, the world endured President Bush's bravado when he recklessly announced to the world:

"There are some who feel like ― that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring ’em on. We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.”

Big talk from a man who did everything he could to avoid his own military service during the Vietnam War, occasionally patrolling the skies over the Gulf Coast when he bothered to report for duty at all.

From the National Security Network:

It has been four years since the President declared “bring’em on” in response to the budding insurgency in Iraq. Since that statement, more than 3,300 American troops have been killed and 25,000 have been wounded. Iraqi civilians have suffered tremendously, with four million fleeing their homes and an estimated 35,000 killed. The security situation has only deteriorated further, with the initial insurgency morphing into multiple civil wars and sectarian violence. Incredibly, there are more American troops in Iraq today than were there four years ago when the President made his reckless declaration.

Since the President recklessly declared “bring’em on” more than 3,300 American troops have been killed. Approximately 25,000 American troops have been wounded since that day.

American troop fatalities are up 70% since the surge began. In the four and a half months since Operation Fardh al-Qanoon officially began in Baghdad on February 14 American casualties have averaged almost 3.3 per day, up 70% over the same time period in 2006.

Civilian casualties are in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. The United Nations estimates that 35,000 civilians were killed in Iraq during 2006 alone. No one really knows how many people have died since the conflict began.

Attacks on American troops and Iraqi Security Forces are still averaging 5,000 per month. In the first four months of 2007 attacks have remained at 2006 levels.

America has been in Iraq longer than it was in World War II. It has been 52 months since military operations in Iraq began. As of July 1, 2007, American troops have been in Iraq for 1,565, days the equivalent of 222 weeks.

Baghdad is still averaging only 5.6 hours of electricity per day. This number represents only 20% of prewar production levels.

The Brits are way cooool!

From Crooks and Liars, Here's what happens when you don't have the fear mongering Bush Administration, personified by the man of a million disguises, Michael Cherthoff, fanning fears over every incident:

Email of the Day

By: John Amato on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 11:59 AM - PDT
via Nonny Mouse in the UK:

BBC is remarking on how calm the public was during the ‘car bomb’ attack on the Glasgow airport, how little panic or ‘terror’ there was — mostly just people whipping out their mobile phone cameras and filming everything in sight.

Arrests made on the M6 motorway in Cheshire last night as well. People got out of cars and offered to HELP the police.

Glasgow Airport is back up and running, passengers being interviewed coming off planes have said things are running smoothly, no problems. A bit of a hassle walking around the cordoned off bits of the airport, but no one’s complaining. Lots of smiling faces.

It’s almost psychology in reverse — the more fanatics try to terrorise the British, the more the British refuse to be terrorised. We’re more worried about the goddamned rain at the moment.

But here in the U.S. we have King Georgie boy saying things like, "you never know where they may try to strike," and Cherthoff fanning fears with his statement on the Sunday talking head shows that "international terrorism might come to the United States through Europe."

Let's be vigilant, but let's not let the terrorists get what they want. Never forget that the name "terrorist" comes from the tactic of creating fear and terror in the general population. When we become fearful and terrorized and change the way we live, the terrorists win. No matter who they are.