TFG. He claims he can't spare a man due to the critical phase of his anti-gun Moral Panic.

This is a hugely significant week in terms of US domestic politics,Â’ a spokesman added.

He said that both the First Lady and the Vice President were ‘the President’s point people on gun control’, adding: ‘This is a week when there is a lot of movement on Capitol Hill on gun control issues.’

Boehner will attempt to correct this international embarrassment (I mean the snub, not Obama), but a few Representatives aren't the same as high officials from the actual government.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today announced he will send a delegation to London this week to represent the U.S. House of Representatives at the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the United Kingdom. The delegation will be led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

Bachmann will also go.

Incidentally, the BBC did in fact play "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" on their top-selling-songs countdown. Their reasoning seemed solid enough: They can't black out the news nor attempt to silence free expression. (They once did just that when "God Save the Queen" rose in the charts during the Jubilee; they just didn't acknowledge the song existed.)

As a compromise, they played a seven-second clip of it, acknowledging the song's position in the UK charts (number two) while avoiding celebrating the hateful spirit in which it was purchased. The song, of course, is being purchased to play at actual parties --yes, they call them parties -- celebrating Thatcher's demise.

If the American media ever reported all the left's obnoxious, crude, hateful behavior, the public might not have the sense that they're the "easygoing, flexible ones." Fortunately for the left, this will never happen.

Corrected: Apparently it was seven seconds. More importantly, I'm not sure the BBC really avoided delighting in her death -- judge for yourself, but they seem rather determined to make the Death Celebrants' point for them by noting all the ways in which Thatcher had disappointed them.

What I mean is -- I wasn't sure what I meant a moment ago -- that playing the song without commentary would have been less offensive than what they did, which was to "explain" the controversy by painting a sympathetic portrait of her detractors. Which is not only conceding to them their little stunt (it gets played on the list), but then amplifying that by also spreading their message.

Posted by: Ace at 09:23 AM | Comments (376)
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Not pipe bombs, then.

A person briefed on the Boston Marathon investigation says the explosives were in 6-liter pressure cookers and placed in black duffel bags.

The person says the explosives were placed on the ground and contained shards of metal, nails and ball bearings. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

The person says law enforcement officials have some of the bomb components but did not yet know what was used to set off the explosives.

Via The Jawa Report, an Al Qaeda DIY bomb-making recipe specifies just this type of device. The below is taken from Samir Khan's jihadi magazine "Inspire."

[S]ix pounds of smokeless powder, Christmas lights and battery operated clocks which were apparently intended to create a timing and triggering device of some type, sugar, shrapnel, pressure cooker, shot guns shells that were in the process of being dismantled to obtain their raw explosives.

...

The explosion that results from this device is a mechanical one. It results from the pressure caused by the gases and therefore it only works if contained in a high pressure environment. So you may use iron pipes, pressure cookers, fire extinguishers, or empty propane canisters....

The pressurized cooker is the most effective method.

...

You may substitute the inflammable substance extracted from matches by gunpowder used in cartilages.

Via @simontemplar and @laurawalkerkc.

Note: I suppose I should say the obvious: Improvised explosive designs are obviously not subject to patent and can be used by anyone. And people imitate other people's "tech" (I suppose this is a form of technology). I don't think that just because the bomb types were promoted by jihadis is any kind of strong proof that the bomber was a jihadi or read jihadi magazines. I'm pretty sure that the IRA, for example, knows all about this particular bomb type.

It's marginally suggestive but only marginally.

Update: Suspect at Hospital Cleared? Search of Home "Fruitless"? Via Walrus Rex, Suspect One is now Bystander One?

The day after two powerful bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, a mile-square area around Copley Square here remained cordoned off as a crime scene, and officials still had no one in custody. Investigators searched a house in a nearby suburb late Monday night, but later said the search had proved fruitlessÂ…

Late Monday night, law enforcement officials descended on an apartment building in the suburb of Revere, about five miles north of Copley Square, linked to a man the police took into custody near the scene of the bombings. But on Tuesday morning, one law enforcement official said investigators had determined that the man, who was injured in the blast and was questioned at the hospital, was not involved in the attack.

One cop's belief doesn't make it so, but it is worth noting.

Never felt right to me.

Posted by: Ace at 08:29 AM | Comments (504)
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So claims a New York Post source. This is the first tangible bit of evidence I've heard against him.

The police took various bits of possible evidence from the man's Revere apartment.

Marcus Worthington, 24, a law student who lives in a neighboring building, said he was told by an official wearing an ATF jacket that residents were “safe now.”

Worthington said officials told him they were responding to a tip about one of the apartments.

"He said that they were investigating a tip about a dangerous device in one of the apartments. I did ask him if it was a bomb or something, but he wouldn't answer."

I felt required to quote that as it seems highly suggestive, but I'm actually quoting it because it's not, but made to seem that way. Consider what a cop telling you "you're safe now" means-- it's just a general reassurance. It means "you're fine." It doesn't mean, as I think is being implied, "You're safe... now."

As for the latter bit, about asking if the cop had found a bomb and the cop not answering: This means even less. Why would the investigator answer? Investigator do answer sometimes, but they're not supposed to, not when it's about evidence concerning a very high-profile crime. In fact, the one situation I could see an investigator answering is if it were actually a bomb. In that case cops would say "Yes we think it's a bomb" and then begin evacuating people, in case there were more.

But this bit of nothing-trumped-up-into-something aside, there is some reason for suspecting this guy:

...

At the hospital, investigators seized the manÂ’s clothes to examine whether they held any evidence that he was behind the attack. The law-enforcement sources also told The Post that the man was not free to leave the medical center.

...

FBI investigators leaving the apartment building following a raid of the potential suspect's home.

As of last night, investigators had not yet directly asked the man whether he had set off the bombs. But they had asked him general questions, such as what he was doing in the area.

The potential suspect told police he had dinner Sunday night near BostonÂ’s Prudential Center, about half a mile from the blast site, the sources said.

He also said that he went to the Copley Square area yesterday to witness the finish of the race.

The sources said that, after the man was grabbed by police, he smelled of gunpowder and declared, “I thought there would be a second bomb.”

He also asked: “Did anyone die?”

As far as "smelled of gunpowder:" That's sort of suggestive but I do wonder-- wouldn't must people near the blast smell of gunpowder? (Assuming it was a gunpowder-based explosive.) People smell of gunpowder after firing guns; the cloud of gunpowder from a fired bullet gets into their skin and clothes. If a gunpowder-based bomb blew up, wouldn't a big cloud of gunpowder smoke get into the clothes and skin of anyone nearby or downwind?

"I thought there would be a second bomb" seems more suggestive. Although anyone can speculate something like that.

My skepticism is present here for two reasons: 1, I think skepticism is useful as a general matter, and 2, this just feels too easy to me. It feels like we should have had to work harder and longer to find this guy. (Though commenters remind me we rolled up Timothy McVeigh very quickly.)

Posted by: Ace at 07:47 AM | Comments (287)
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• Eight Year Old Boy Who Died In Blast, Martin Richard, Was Waiting At The Finish Line To Hug His Father
  
• Member Of US Forest Service Blames The Tea Party For Boston Terror Attack
  
• Brother Of 9/11 Firefighters On Scene At Boston Marathon
  
• FBI Questions Saudi Man
  
• Police Search Apartment
  
• At Least 25 To 30 People Have At Least One Leg Missing
  
• Elderly Man Seen In Bombing Video Reportedly Okay
  
• CAIR Disappointed People Always Suspect Muslims After Terror Attacks, It Could Have Been The Zoroastrians
  
• 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake In Iran
  
• Manchin And Toomey Are Open To Making Changes On Background Checks To Get Support
  
• Backstory To The Hero In The Cowboy Hat Who Held A Man's Severed Artery Closed After Attack
  
• Alex Jones Accomplice Heckles Deval Patrick At Presser About This Being A False Flag Attack
  
• NYT's Kristof Blames The GOP Minutes After The Attack And Then Walks It Back
  
• Delaware Abortion Clinic Facing Charges Of Unsafe And Unsanitary Conditions
  
• Infographic: Conservative Tweets Force MSM Coverage Of Gosnell
  
• Gold Had Worst Two Day Drop In Decades
  
• From Roe To Gosnell
  
• The Gripping Story Of Two Brothers Who Lost Legs In Yesterday's Attack
  
• Glenn Reynolds: Breaking The Media Silence
  
• Eric Holder's Wife Co-Owns Abortion Clinic Building Run By Indicted Abortionist
  
• Good Time To Read Gabe's Old Post About The Media's Desire To Blame The Right For Massacres And Attacks
  
• Maduro's Narrow Victory In Venezuela Stinks Of Fraud
  
• Who At Yahoo Thought It Was A Good Idea To Publish This?
  

Update (9:44 am): Live FBI News Conference (autoplay video)

You are welcome to follow me on twitter if it pleases you.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:05 AM | Comments (491)
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Good morning from the Boston burbs. Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes yesterday, and please continue to pray for the victims and their families.

Posted by: andy at 02:36 AM | Comments (137)
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Even with the worldwide Obama lovefest bump from 2008-2012, we're still under the 50% mark in the "shining example" category with a lot of countries.

Although there's no 2012 data on them, we're probably still a solid lock with Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Kenya based on the 2007 figures, so at least we got that. Given their dysfunctional systems, looking impressive isn't a big deal though.

If the USA isn't setting a (perceived) positive example for others and inspiring them, then what the hell are we doing? And should we keep doing whatever that is?

I'd like to hear how the president and congress would answer those questions.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:39 PM | Comments (44)
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If Only Women Were In Charge

The world would be a nearly perfect place without war or cruelty or puffy-face judgment according to Feminists.

But Neo-neocon disagrees:

Nothing in my experience or my observation of human beings indicates that this would be so. I'm not speaking of individual men and women, who have a broad range of characteristics with a great deal of overlap. But in the aggregate, there is nothing "better" about the way women operate, either in terms of the way they treat other people, the policies they advocate, or the degree of their propensity for tyranny.

The world wouldn't be better, although it would probably be different. The tyranny of women in charge would probably resemble something like the world Sarah Conly envisions; they don't call it the nanny state for nothing.

But don't expect the Matriarchy to be any kinder or gentler - especially to women.  My mother who fought her way up in business back when women were relatively rare once observed that even men who were male chauvinists might still ally and work with her if they had a common interest - but women always treated her as an enemy no matter what.

And Dan Collins in Men Are From Bad, Women Are From Good points out that modern feminist theory has labored to make women the holders of all virtue while men are but the nasty, smelly, violent dross remaining.

On numerous occasions, I've noted that the entire business of third-wave feminism is simply to place all the attractive aspects of human nature in the bucket marked 'feminine,' while consigning all the ugly ones to the dumpster marked 'masculine.' Mrs. Clinton's recent performances demonstrate that she labors in this peculiar racket, and that she plans on making such rhetoric a Martha Stewart Living centerpiece of her presidential campaign. Should a man exhibit the qualities of tenderness, compassion, devotion, sacrifice, it is merely because he is 'in touch with his feminine side.' He is, as the proggies like to say (and they've been saying it since there have been proggies) more evolved than the general run of men. In what direction has he evolved? In the direction of the condition of womanhood.

Also a 'feminine' trait: social collectivism.

It's nice that it isn't a zero-sum game, but one can't help noticing that all of this metaphorical manipulation is performed with the dual purpose not only of advancing the status of women in our society, but also of arguing for social collectivism, without all of this yucky focus on those individual rights that threaten the security of all those uniquely individual human beings who rely on . . . collectivism, with its zero-sum rhetoric about pie slices, fairly doled out by Nanny Pie Slicer.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:29 PM | Comments (539)
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I know what you're all thinking: US tax-code protester.

In addition to that, there is another report of a suspect vehicle, which seems unrelated to the above matter (in as much as a backpack suggests a man on foot, not at the wheel of a vehicle). But maybe the suspicious Penske truck turned away from the area by police is related to the Bolo.

Posted by: Ace at 04:39 PM | Comments (551)
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Fat, drunk, and Matthews is no way to go through life, son.

From The Quiet Man.

Posted by: Ace at 04:03 PM | Comments (273)
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Over at Riehl, the book on this guy is that a man observed him "acting suspiciously" and tackled him to the ground after the blast.

That's not really very strong evidence-- that's one guy who thought he was acting suspiciously.* My first thought was that this would turn out to be Just a Guy and I'm thinking it still might.

Obviously no one's going to jail for just "acting suspiciously" and the investigation is in its earliest moments. Evidence may turn up. Then again, it might not.

I'm just leery of the First Guy Getting Grabbed After an Attack. Like Richard Jewell.

Hmm: A different man in handcuffs?

A potential suspect in the Boston marathon attacks is being guarded by police in hospital, according to reports.

Several reports now say a suspect is being guarded in a Boston hospital bed. One report said he was a Saudi-Arabian national.

The reports claim the hospitalized suspect was himself injured by shrapnel from the finish line explosions and has severe injuries.

he New York Post said a police source told them the suspect was a Saudi Arabian national.

Police were keen to underline there had been no arrests but they did say they were talking to suspects.

There was another individual pictured in handcuffs at the scene but it wasn't clear whether it was an unrelated arrest or not

It's possible, I guess, that the cuffed man is the one who'd tackled the Saudi. As he'd be possibly guilty of assault (except if he's safe due to the citizens arrest rule, etc.).

Another avenue of inquiry is the video feeds. There are claims that a man was seen walking with backpacks, just before the bombs blew up. They were believed to have been hidden in backpacks.

* Of course, on the other hand, there's all sorts of studies lately that one's senses and intuition have a lot more information than one's rational mind -- that is, that one's gut instinct is more right than it is generally credited for being. This being the Age of Reason and all (hah, as if).

Not sure what the guy was doing that was suspicious-- we have to hear more about this suspicious behavior before knowing whether this was a good instinct or an errant one.

Update: The second article linked by Gateway Pundit contains more on the CCTV evidence, and the claim that the backpack-dropping man was caught on video.

I hate to keep saying obvious things but here goes: This video evidence might be useful, assuming it exists, and might quickly clear or inculpate suspects.

Via Tami.

An 8-Year-Old Boy... ...is among the dead.

"Someone's leg flew over my head," said John Ross, a witness who offered [the wounded man] his belt as a tourniquet.

From Le Figaro.

Posted by: Ace at 03:16 PM | Comments (249)
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