Authorities Arrest Men With NYC Maps, Videos

Someone from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority sent out an email to everyone that works at the airport with this story. The email had this posted above a copy of the story:

CONSTANT VIGILANCE & SECURITY AWARENESS REQUIRED ‘24/7’
See Event NEWS
Below

Here at the airport they are definatly worried about this sort of thing, and I suppose rightly so, but after thinking about it for a while I began to see how dumb or missleading this article can be.

Now, I must admit that immediatly after seeing this article I felt a little bit relieved the men were arrested, and scared for what they had planned. But then I began to realise, in a post-9/11 world, I was just sensationalizing the story because of my predisposed American affinity for hatred and fear of terrorists. Lets look at the facts:

• First of all, the men were four illegal immigrants and a law enforcement fugitive, and so they deserved to be arrested.
• They had in thier possession NYC subway maps (not mentioned what kind), video of New York Landmarks (not mentioned the quality or nature of the video), and lots of cash.
• One claimed to be a street vender, 2 brothers lied about there being 3 other men in the apartment, and they all claimed to be unemployed civil or chemical engineers.
• The FBI did not link them to a terror network yet, but the men could still not explain the iteams in their possession or reasons for being in the US.

That last point in crucial, and I skipped over it on my first read through the article. They were not accused of being terrorits, and are being deported for being illegal immigrants, not for ties to a terrorist network. When I read the email and realised I was mearly giving into fear by assuming they were terrorists and some kind of attack was just averted, I tried to research the story. I found that ABC news seems to be the only agency reporting the 'story'. That made it nearly impossible to get any more facts.

As such, I could not be sure what kind of subway maps they had. Basic route maps would probably be no good except for getting from place to place. The civil or mechanical drawings from constuction might be another issue that goes beyond them being tourists. Then money, being $8000, seems like a lot, but I know there are people that carry lots of cash around, especially when touring other countries, because of exchange rates and such, so this lead may not be anything. As for the video, how many people a year take video of New York landmarks? Millions! A big chunk of the economy there is based on tourism, so a guy with a camera is a common occurance. So you see, the actual content of the video is what matters, what is the commentary like, what kind of things are they stressing as subjects in the film, etc.

There was a good discussion going on at this forum debating the merits of this story and the possibilities. There seems to be an even split between people are scared and people who believe it might all just be coinsidence. Then there are people like myself that think it could be nothing or it could be something, but the important thing is to realise that by fearing it we are in fact just giving into the reign of fear the terrorists are trying to instill in the first place! There is a difference between terrorists and tourists, there is also a difference between being safe and being paranoid. They were illegal, so deport then. Then give me more information about what they had in their possession and whether it appears they were indeed planning something. Until then, I will assume the police did a good job keeping illegal immigrants out, and the media (once again) did a poor job informing us about the facts of the story and twisted it to sensationalize it.

If anyone has any other information on this story, I'd like to hear it so I can better decide what to think. I have kind of lost hope in the Patriot Act at this point, and I kind of hope no one uses this story as a reason to renew the Patriot Act without further information.

Karl Rove is a Bully, but Not a Criminal

Something interesting from Ann Coulter. This is her explaination of what happened with this whole Rove-Wilson-Plame thing. I'm not saying I believe everything in her article is 100% correct, it is just a different explanation of events that the liberal media isn't reporting, and perhaps it requires more investigation. Anyways, here's an interesting tidbit:

Despite the colloquialism being used on TV to describe the relevant criminal offense, the law does not criminalize "revealing the name" of a covert operative. If it did, every introduction of an operative at a cocktail party or a neighborhood picnic would constitute a felony. "Revealing the name of" is shorthand to describe what the law does criminalize: Intentionally revealing a covert operative as a covert operative, knowing it will blow the operative's cover.

Read the entire article, pretty interesting, and it kind of makes the whole ordeal seem moot and pointless. The Roanoke Slant also has a good peice, Rove and Plame-Wilson, that bullets the FACTS of this case, and there seems to be more to this story than the media is letting on. Can we get back to focusing on Iraq and Social Security now, please?

UPDATE: A few more interesting snippets here.

As GOP congressman turned talk-show host Joe Scarborough puts it, if someone in his old congressional office did what Rove unquestionably did, that someone would have been promptly fired, just as the president promised in this case.
"Scarborough, no longer obligated to toe the pathetic Republican Party
line, says it's totally irrelevant if Joe Wilson is a preening partisan who misled investigators about the role his wife played in recommending his Niger
trip. The frantic efforts of the GOP attack machine to change the subject to Wilson shows how scared Republicans are that the master of their universe will be held accountable for Rove's destructive carelessness."

and here:

In National Review, John Podhoretz pours cold water on the story after the NYT says Novak mentioned Plame to Rove and that Rove confirmed it:
"This surely qualifies as one of the 'hey, big whoop' stories of all time. And I am not
saying this because I am some partisan gunslinger. Simple fairness says that an official called by a journalist who volunteers a piece of gossip and then responds, 'I heard that too,' is not retailing a piece of incendiary information intended to destroy lives and place CIA assets in harm's way."And I'm going to be blunt here. Anybody who says different has an agenda that has nothing whatever to do with Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, or much of anything else besides doing damage to the Bush administration and character-assassinating Karl Rove."

Take what you will from that, I tend to agree with the second one.

Swearing on the BIBLE?! I swear...

Here is a typical scene in government swearing in cerimonies and court room appearances that I find rediculous. Why does the NASA Administrator have to the swear on the Bible? Why does anyone have to swear on the Bible. Swearing on the Bible is the dumbest thing our fore fathers came up with that we still practice today (though not the only thing!).

Ok, granted a large majority of the American population is Christian, but I believe this does not warrent making everyone swear on a Bible whether they are Christian or not, and I'm Catholic (not a very good one though). To most people, swearing on the Bible means absolutely nothing! so why on Earth do we make them do it? Is it supposed guilt them into telling the truth? Cause that won't work. Doesn't work on me because the Bible is 90% sex, lies, and mass destruction (the other 10% is really worth listening to). I'll leave that rant to another day, the main point here is Swearing On the Bible is Out of Date and Pointless.

I would much rather see a the president sworn in with his hand on the Constitution (or Declaration of Independence for that matter). Better yet, place your hand on the Earth, and swear to protect the "inalienable rights", "that all men are created equal" and blah blah blah we hold these truths to be self evident, the pledge to allow everyone the opportunity to persue "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", so help me Desireforeveryonetolivehappilyandfreely.

My birthday? 1/13/85

Your Birthdate: January 13

Being born on the 13th day of the month should help make you a better manager and organizer, but it may also give you a tendency to dominate people a bit. You may be more responsible and self-disciplined than you realize. Sincere and honest, you are a serious, hard working individual. Your feeling are likely to seem somewhat repressed at times. You are apt to be much more practical, rational, and conscious of details. Your intolerance and insistence on complete accuracy can be irritating to some.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

The Roe Effect

Here is something very interesting. Try and read the whole article.

The best solution for both parties would likely be a return to the status quo
ante Roe--that is, for Congress and the president largely to ignore abortion,
and leave its regulation to the state legislatures.

I would say this is exactly what I think should happen, but someone else already beat me to the punch. My opinions don't seem so revolutionary anymore :( but it's ok, I still call myself an independent thinker. Basically, take what that guy said, copy and paste it here, and that is my position. Plain and simple. Abortion is wrong, but it's an argument that should be decided by state governments. Same with gay marriage. Just because I believe strongly in some things because of my religious upbringing doesn't mean I don't understand democratic process.

Limited government. That is the key to this and many issues. The options aren't always as black and white as politicians would have you believe.

Oh, while we're on religion, here's something you probably didn't know about scientology. Alrighty, Tom Cruise...

What a weekend!

No ranting and raving today, just wanted to write about the totally awesome weekend I had.

It all started out Friday July 1 as I was leaving work. I got a call from Sarah saying "We're going clubbing tonight" and I was like "Okay" and so we went clubbing. Before that though, I had a pretty good steak at her house (her Grandfather Charlie's beef is awesome). Anyways, Sarah, Mo, Kevin, and I met up with Nestor, Nick, and Esin to pregame before heading out which was pretty cool, it was good to see those kids again. We went to Lulu's in DC and had a BLAST! Stayed out just long enough to still be having fun but not to late that we started to get tired. Tons of fun, we have to do it more often.

So then I went home, got about 4 hours of sleep or less, and then headed out to West Virginia with Sarah for a day of kayaking on a creek by my cousin's new cottage. That was equally awesome, even though Sarah and I got lost due to bad directions and Sarah was upset for a little while. Everything was OK though, because kayaking was hella fun even with the water barely deep enough to let us through in some places. I also got flashed a few times along the way which was very cool. There was a suspended bridge over the creek at one point that we went across. It was extremely rusty and scary, but it held and it has to be one of the wildest things I've done in a while. I also found a lamp made of a street signal, and I think I'm going to go back and get it and bring it to school in August for the new townhouse. There was just too much cool stuff at that house, I have to go back and mess around a little more. It reminded me of all the old stuff we could find at the farmhouse in WI.

Now, that was only Saturday. SUNDAY, I guess I didn't do much other than go running at Burke Lake with my baby, which was nice because it was beautiful out, though we both ended up crapping out before we made it all the way around the lake. Guess we have to work our way up to 4.5 miles slowly. After that, we went to Panera's for lunch and it was pretty good. Then I went home, mowed the lawn, showered, and went to bed until dinner. Dinner was leftovers, and afterwards I we lit a fire in our new fire pit and just sat around until bedtime.

MONDAY Sarah came over early and we went to the Fairfax City 4th of July Parade. After the parade (which was ok, just anti-climactic), I taught Sarbear how to play golf! She's gonna be pretty good too I think, so I have to take her to a real driving range so she can come golfing with dad and I next time we go. Then we drive into DC to Mike and Shana's house on Capital Hill for thier annual barbeque. As always, it was good food and good company. Around 8:30 babydoll and I walked down to the Mall to watch the fireworks which were cool as always. Going down to the Mall is an experience and I really like doing it, and Sarah had a good time which always makes me happy. Anyways, that day ended up with us driving home late and passing right out.

Finally, TUESDAY, Sarah and I took the day off to go to Kings Dominion! We went with Christina and Juan, which meant I didn't have to drive which was nice. We all had a good time, got a picture taken on the Ricochet, and went on basically all the roller coasters. Hotty and I went to the waterpark but apparently we missed half of it somehow, so we'll have to go back. Best ride of the day: Drop Zone. Closest to weightlessness I have ever been. That ride is alot better than the one at Busch Gardens because it is probably twice the drop. Very cool. Anyways, after that was all over we went back to Sarah's place, had Mac and Cheese, and went to our beds (ie I had to drive home first).

So in summary, the weekend was PACKED with stuff to do, and by the end I was worn out but thouroughly satisfied. One thing did bother me, and that was the fact that my guy friends (Brian, Paul, Matt, TJ at least, who knows who else) went to the beach for the weekend and didn't invite me. If there is a legitimate reason for that I will say OK, but it seems like they just didn't think I would go so they didn't bother asking. Granted, I wouldn't have said yes even if they did ask me, but it's the gesture, you know? I have been pretty good about inviting them to things I am doing, and they have been good too until recently where I haven't gotten a call in a few weeks. Anyways, I shouldn't pass judgement before I know the real reason for not including me in their 'revelries'.

Well, thats all for now, just had to put it on record that I had a totally awesome weekend and got to spend it with the most amazing, fun, beautiful, girl I know!