I might be treading on thin ice here, but I think this Administration is picking up where the terrorists left off. Terrorists seek to inspire fear in the hearts of their victims, yes? I see the same thing happening every day with federal policy. While taking away our freedoms, they are causing undue alarm. Why tell us there's a bomb threat if we're supposed to "go about our daily lives" anyway? Why have stages to national alarm, if theyre going to be set to high at all times? I think its time a leader emerges to cut through the BS, and say "We are America. We are one of the strongest nations, politically and culturally, in the world, and we will not live in fear any more. We will do anything in our power to combat opposing forces, but we will not try to scare the crap out of our citizens while cavity searching them through their tapped phone. Go about your lives, we are taking control of this situation, and in the unfortunate event something does happen, we will be prepared to take immediate action." Or something like that.

Its really sad when I have no choice but to side with Michael Moore and say, yeah, we are a country who's crapping our pants.

Wolfanoz

Lamb fries?

What a bunch of tools. If Bloomberg did not act on it and the information got out, or god forbid, it was not a hoax every one of you bush haters would be out for blood. Hello BALI EXPLOSION ?

Even the most reasonable response to any situation has got some nefarious evil Bush plot behind it.

Your a bunch of whiny farkin libs.

You would be the same Jerry Brown libs back in the 80's whining about how Reagan & Thatcher were gonna blow up the world rather then break USSR. U were wrong then, your wrong again now.

It's amazing how you tools dont get that if somebody does not smack down this growing Muslim fundamentalism in the world the Western Civilization you hate so much is going to be rewound 1000 years.

Why dont you go out and buy your burkas and prayer mats now you whiny whimps.

You have always been wrong when it comes to world affairs, and your dead wrong now.

NoKNoKCPU:

I found a pic of your cat!



Seriously, it is getting kind of scary. Big brother is watching you fap!

01:22:11 PM EbolaNYC
Lamb fries?

Whoa, is that a Funny Farm reference?

KissMyAsscroft

"Unfortunately, you have a warped idea of what being "nerdy" means."

Ohhh I hit a nerve!

Let me guess... ANOTHER Canadian living in the US?

I can't count the number of times I have met a Canadian who gleefully bashes Americans, yet lives here.

EbolaNYC: Fries with sacrificial lamb gravy.

No seriously, poutine = fries and fresh cheese curds with gravy over the top. UNF!

2005-10-11 01:23:16 PM JohnGault

Absolutely perfect! Well said.

sound bite from old CS:

"Terrorists win"

EbolaNYC
poutine!

JohnGault

It's amazing how you tools dont get that if somebody does not smack down this growing Muslim fundamentalism in the world the Western Civilization you hate so much is going to be rewound 1000 years.

Yeah, since this is working so well in Iraq.

Wolfanoz:

Don't knock Canada! Two great things out of Canada.

1) Hockey
and
2 Rush

Ya know... so what? In this case, stepped up security cost some money, and took about 30 minutes of bag searches on all three days combined. I'd rather have an overreaction that costs money than an underreaction that costs lives. That said, most New Yorker's didn't really care... the overwhelming reaction from those who live here was "Al Qaeda plans to bomb us... no shiat, sherlock." Most of us here are pretty sure that Al Qaeda still haven't joined the Yankee fan club, and there isn't a hell of a lot you can do to convince someone who thinks God is directing them that they've been duped. They'll hit us eventually, and life will go on for those of us that don't die, it'll be sad... idiots will try to interlace wholly irrelevant stuff with it, who knows, maybe we'll attack Peru or something... but for those of us who live, the odds will still be overwhelmingly more in favor of us winning the lottery or being hit by a car than dying in a terrorist attack. This is the new normal, they will continue to threaten everyone, and occasionally, they will have some follow through.

All in all, as long as it doesn't get too Orwellian, and they don't significantly impact the way I do things (e.g. banning briefcases on the subway), I'm ok with it. As for the extraordinary renditions and stuff, I'm not ok with that. Generally though, they want a holy war, and I don't even want to give them the time of day.

Much Love,
Firefly

I don't know that NYC officials were in a panic state; the night he announced the warning, Bloomberg made a point of saying he was going to keep taking the subway, and everybody else should, too. Nobody I know stopped taking the subway because they were scared. I think people here didn't complain about the subway being farked up because they didn't disregard the threat completely, but nobody was panicking about it, either.

It's amazing how you tools dont get that this radical muslim fundamentalism is not going to take over the entire planet.

FTR: Most NY'ers think the rest of the country is comprised of terrified women and children in oversized sweatshirts with embroidered sheep ordered from QVC, that's the impression we've gotten from the national news anyways.

"What a bunch of tools. If Bloomberg did not act on it and the information got out, or god forbid, it was not a hoax every one of you bush haters would be out for blood. Hello BALI EXPLOSION ?

Even the most reasonable response to any situation has got some nefarious evil Bush plot behind it.

Your a bunch of whiny farkin libs.

You would be the same Jerry Brown libs back in the 80's whining about how Reagan & Thatcher were gonna blow up the world rather then break USSR. U were wrong then, your wrong again now.

It's amazing how you tools dont get that if somebody does not smack down this growing Muslim fundamentalism in the world the Western Civilization you hate so much is going to be rewound 1000 years.

Why dont you go out and buy your burkas and prayer mats now you whiny whimps.

You have always been wrong when it comes to world affairs, and your dead wrong now."


Wow, what an insightful and well thought out post, let me give everybody the cliff notes version of it. I would make fun of the spelling and grammatical errors, but that would be too easy.

"Liberals suck. Watch out for the Boogeyman!!!"

Thank you, and good night.

"I feel safer already!" (TM)

Maybe someone called in and said that the Yankees were going to bomb in the playoffs.

/Crying

I can't believe this but, I agree with canyoneer. Here is the deal. If you announce that there is a terrorist threat, what does it do? It scares the crap out of people. Yeah they try to pay more attention to their surroundings, but that in itself is a perpetuation of the terrorists goals. Further, whether we announce it or not, if something gets bombed the accustions will fly. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. It would have been better to fund the CIA and FBI with the money they needed, and staff these agencies with people who kKNOW WHAT THE FCUK THEY ARE DOING. All homeland security does is create another middleman for any information to go through. The last thing we need is any information ( that is actually valuable) getting stale going through the "proper channels"

So we are decided. Ignore bomb threats. Just like the pre 911 memos.

I come down with Firefly212 on this one. It cost a few days and some money. With a little luck, some lessons were learned about how to conduct it, and we can call it a dress rehersal.

If they find the butwipe who called it in, he should be jailed and left alone for 30 minutes with angry New York commuters. If they aren't mean enough, bring in some DC commuters.

Sorry, If an explosion occured and Bloomies did not act I would not be out for his blood. Frankly this is the best economic stimulus package for the rich I have ever seen. I really have to hand it to a bunch of dry drunks who could not get it up if they had a crane. Oooh 911 lets bomb a country with no ties to the act. He tried to kill my daddy,,,,sniff.... He has bad toys...etc. It just keeps playing forever does it not??

ermm .. these false terror alerts are only serving to stave off the inevitable indictment of you-know-who ..

we're pawns in the hands of indsicriminate criminal minds, otherwise known as the current White House Administration ..

You New Yorkers are missing the point because you are too close to the reality of the situation. These alerts are not for you they are for the rest of the country so that we can say "ohh no the terrorsist can attack any time, this reminds me why we need our bloated military"

JohnGault
It's amazing how you tools dont get that if somebody does not smack down this growing Muslim fundamentalism in the world the Western Civilization you hate so much is going to be rewound 1000 years.

Remember when the conservatives in the 80's said that if we didn't attack the Soviets we'd all be calling each other comrade by the end of the millennium?

Conservatives are like Nickelback - same tune, different lyrics, wish they'd shut up.

JohnGault: Why dont you go out and buy your burkas and prayer mats now you whiny whimps.

Your post ignores the fact that the people of this city, who continue to go about their daily business under the most serious threat of terrorism in the country, are these whiny liberal whimps.

/braver than you are, Miss Rand.

The bomb was in the shape of Howard Sterns balls.

Baba booey baba booey

Headso

It's amazing how you tools dont get that this Headso

It's amazing how you tools dont get that this radical muslim fundamentalism is not going to take over the entire planet.

Radical Muslim fundamentalism = the new commie threat.

More control, more military spending.

So we are decided. Ignore bomb threats. Just like the pre 911 memos.

I don't think anyone's said "ignore bomb threats". People are saying something more along the line of "respond in accordance with the credibility of the source".

The collective national security disaster we've found ourselves in for the last five years has come from ignoring credible sources that didn't tell us what we were interested in hearing (the pre 911 memos), and from giving credence to bogus sources that told us exactly what we wanted to hear (Ahmed Chalabi & WMDs).

When you start relying on dubious methods and sources - crooks with incentive to lie, prisoners given "stress interrogations", and the like - you're going to end up with a false alarm.

When this happens on a regular basis, the competence of the people that are supposed to be looking into these threats, from the top on down, comes into question.

JohnGault: You have always been wrong when it comes to world affairs, and your dead wrong now.

OMG it's the president of the Ann Coulter, Shawn Hanitty and Rush Limbaugh fan club trifecta.

Isn't anybody going to jump on that? It's pretty damn well established that torture is a terrible method of obtaining accurate information, morals aside.

RoboBagpiper I agree, I was ragging on the guy defending torture.

I didn't defend torture, moran...both of you are assuming the info came from a tortured individual, where news reports list him as an informant. Reading is fundamental.

Don't knock Canada! Two great things out of Canada.

Don't forget Paul Schaffer

Headso:

Hmm, you may be right. Usually, most Americans seem pretty cheery at the thought of NYC being blown up. That would explain the sudden concern.

/I pay $2k a month in rent, and I'm going to worry about the friggin' subway bomb?
//fuhgeddaboutit

"Your post ignores the fact that the people of this city, who continue to go about their daily business under the most serious threat of terrorism in the country, are these whiny liberal whimps."

Rubes only like NY when they can use it as an excuse to hate muslims.

"Remember when the conservatives in the 80's said that if we didn't attack the Soviets we'd all be calling each other comrade by the end of the millennium?"

That wasn't so much the conservatives, but the neoconservatives under Reagan. Cheney, Perle, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz. They tried to take credit for the collapse of the USSR, which had been crubling from within for awhile. They had about as much to do with it as the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan.
Well, those boys are back together in Washington again, this time under GW Bush. And they're pulling the same Straussian routines that they pulled under Reagan.
Back then it was the Red Threat, and now it's Terror.

I didn't defend torture, moran...both of you are assuming the info came from a tortured individual, where news reports list him as an informant.

You also read that the informant - and his confederates - were in Special Forces custody in Iraq, didn't you? Reading is fundamental, as you say.

I never assumed that torture was involved; I expressed a hunch that it might be, based on the geographic origin of the source, in whose custody he was held, and the track record of such things.

OH EXCUSE ME!!!

2 great things from Canada... One of them being fries with crap on them... The other a so-so rock band that hasn't done anything in ages (used to listen to Rush so spare me)

Yeah. Lots to be proud of. You're so much better than Americans... Bite me.

Weird. A problem in NY and they DIDNT blame us evil Canadians? I am saddened by this puppy-like trend.

NokNoKCPU good points

I don't think people are appreciating just how close we are to being totally commanded and controlled from the top down.

If there is one thing we should always remember, it is that the police and the government have plans. Big plans. Plans they put in print, plans they talk about in confidential meetings, plans that are spelled out for every possible scenario. These people leave nothing to chance, because that is the only way they can secure their power in any circumstance.

We Americans have one goal in common, to live our lives free of gov't intrusion. That has been the goal since the nation formed. That is why America has been revered over the centuries. Not that the US has always followed that ideal, but the ideal itself was apparent in our consitutional laws.

Not only is this a convenient time for a threat, but the threat itself was exposed as a hoax. Heightened security after the London bombings became super concentrated over the weekend, just to give us a taste of what is to come. Now they are "relaxing" their presence. Of course, in this game, they keep the tension high, until the next increment of power is ready to be unleashed. This same pattern has been used over and over again, and most of us can't even see it. It's Attention Deficit Disorder on a national scale.

The more you look at it, either way, the worse off we are. Personal politics aside, it's obvious that something is gravely wrong with the country. It's not a conspiracy thing or a liberal thing, because bottom line all of us will be affected by the outcome of our actions.

I've been thinking about something I heard reported to be an Al-Queda message. If I remember it right, it said that one of the main goals of Al-Queda is to bankrupt America. If that's the case, this is one way of accomplishing that goal.

They make threat after threat. Each time they make a threat, we spend millions of dollars searching our own citizens in order to uncover the threat. This time it was briefcases and baby strollers. So who was the target? Business people and parents. That's a nice wide target. Not to mention it keeps the cops busy from taking care of the real crimes going on around them since they're busy searching moms and people on their way to work. It's especially effective with the business people because while that American brief case carrying businessman is standing there being searched, he's also losing productivity.

So... In short, they're costing us a ton of money and keeping the general populace in a state of fear. In effect, it means they're slowly accomplishing their goal.

Here's the rub... if we don't take them seriously, they'll actually hit us. If we do take them seriously, they'll keep us dumping our money down the tubes. Of course this could just be a reactionary test on the subway systems of New York. As in "How will they respond if threat A is in place?" and then they take notes about how we try to create security for ourselves (and of course, where the holes are).

So... what do we do? They have Americans living in a general state of anxiety based on fear. The government just keeps pushing that agenda too, that we must be afraid. The government knows that if they keep us in fear, they will be able to rip away more of our freedoms without the masses making so much as a peep.

I say we quit being cowards. I say we stop trading our civil liberties for this illusion of security. I say we start being brave, responsible, and strong. I say we start being Americans.

canyoneer: I can only conclude that these terror alerts are 100% political manipulation and utterly bogus.

If someone in charge of security thinks bombs are coming in baby strollers, I want to be one of the people he tells to look out for baby strollers. I figure everyone probably wants to be on the look-out, or needs to be.

maldoror

And don't forget the recent panic about the bird flu... the Human Health and Services advisor warning us about that, Bush saying we need the military to help prevent bird flu (that makes no sense -- why not put the money into scientific research of vaccines and disease forecasting?), and various other little things that we are constantly being bombarded by... until the people are so afraid that they gladly give away their rights for perceived (but unreal) security.

JohnnyC

So... what do we do? They have Americans living in a general state of anxiety based on fear. The government just keeps pushing that agenda too, that we must be afraid. The government knows that if they keep us in fear, they will be able to rip away more of our freedoms without the masses making so much as a peep.

I say we quit being cowards. I say we stop trading our civil liberties for this illusion of security. I say we start being brave, responsible, and strong. I say we start being Americans.

Precisely.

HOWLINGFROG-"They tried to take credit for the fall of communism"

They don't need to try. They did it. The whole time while you libs were protesting and blocking any further construction of nuclear power stations.

Go work with Moore you tool. YOU will never get it.

Kangaroo_Ralph

I don't think you have much to worry about, if the terrorsts want to bankrupt America the last place they want to wipe off the planet would be a welfare state like Alabama.