It’s beastly, cowardly, and in every way barbaric. But why did it require a response from the president of the U.S.? Not only a response, but one the news media treated as a drop-all-other-programming emergency?
Is the president the leader of a country or is he our Daddy and Mommy who has to rush in to comfort us?
Whoever or whatever bastards are responsible for blowing up the marathon, this appears to be a local catastrophe, not a national threat.
Or … if it is a national threat requiring the immediate intervention of the POTUS … then why didn’t the giant “security” apparatus we’ve spent 12 years surrendering our freedom to “protect” us from it before it happened? Isn’t that why they’ve been treating us all like suspects for the last decade +? To “save” us from mad bombers? Isn’t that what they’re always promising to do?
Also, I just saw a post from someone whose sister was working at the race and “called to say she was okay just before they cut off cellphones.”
First I’ve heard about “them” cutting off cell service. I know it’s been done before when Authoritah feared a riot or interference with cops. But, assuming the report is true*, why would “they” cut off cell service at a time when people need to call for help, reassurance, or a dozen other peaceable, necessary reasons?
—–
* ADDED: And I have to say I don’t know for sure that it is; other reports seem to indicate that the cell system might just have gone into overload. AND: Several commentors have pointed out that, since cell phones can be used to detonate bombs, cutting off service might have been a prudent action.
They would cut off cell service _because_ people need to call for help, reassurance, etc. The government naturally needs to make sure that people are properly terrorized if they’re going to get the most advantage out of a (potentially) terrorist attack.
if it is a terror attack then the PTB missed it because they didn’t train the perpetrators themselves. They only castch people the personally groomed.
“s the president the leader of a country or is he our Daddy and Mommy who has to rush in to comfort us?”
Neither. He’s the CEO of the executive branch, a glorified office manager. And we’d a lot better off if he and everyone else remembered that.
“why would “they” cut off cell service”
There’s actually a rational reason for that, if the initial reports I saw were accurate (at least some of which I’ve already seen corrected. ha!). Supposedly at least two more unexploded bombs were found, raising the possibility of even more. Wiring the detonation circuit of a bomb to the ringer output of a cell phone is an increasingly more common way of remote detonating: Wire Tracfone to bomb, plant, walk away, dial Tracfone number, boom. Shutting down cell service can prevent that.
Supposedly the suspect in custody is a Saudi Arabian (now where have I heard that before?). If the PTB run true to form, we’ll be invading Iran in retaliation.
The TSA is on alert to molest all children in Wyoming bus stations. DHS has warned police agencies across the nation to be wary of white male constitutionalists. Senators Toomey, Manchin, and Schumer blame the lack of background checks on explosives purchases by white male constitutionalists.
Alan Gottlieb has drafted compromise legislation to require anal probing of gun owners for traces of semtex, ammonium nitrate, or GSR. But his bill would require the use of vaseline, and has won the support of useful idiots.
The bipartisan “Gang of Eight” immigration bill committee say this should not derail their expansion of visas for psychotic Saudi Arabians.
Obama’s next speech almost writes itself: “Our resolve is strong. Let us be perfectly clear: bombing us will never stop us from bombing you to make you stop bombing us.”
Dear Leader needs to “get on in front” on this in the event it was some rightwing extremist tea partier, dontcha know. And even if it isn’t he can still call for TSA naked scanners on every street corner to make us all safer (even whilst letting terrorists pour in through the southern border at-will).
What was it Emperor Dead Fish said? Oh yeah, never let a good crisis go to waste.
He’s never one to miss a photo op. Or speech op.
And they better not ban backpacks, they’ll have to pry mine off me.
I know that a coach from the local health club (who actually ran the marathon) got something out via the cell system about 10 minutes after the event; that’s how a relative of mine first heard.
Note that the Boston Marathon is run on Patriot’s Day (observed) which Massachusetts “celebrates” on the third Monday of April, in observance of Lexington and Concord on 4/19. I understand the folks in Mass even get an extra day to file their taxes when Patriot’s day happens to fall on 4/15.
Cell phone can be set up to remotely send a signal to a receiver on the bomb detonation device. Common method used in Iraq to set of bombs.
On “Patriots Day”, a bomb in Boston, as we near the anniversary of Waco and OKC bombing, as the debate over new gun legislation heats up, and as the economy continues to spiral out of control, the public needs to be reminded of the threat of terrorism and the likelihood that it could be homegrown……beware of false flags. Distractions and subterfuge are terrific tools to keep the people frightened, pensive and eager to submit for their own safety, of course.
Cut cell phone service? Creates even greater panic and a sense that “we need mommy gov to do something to save us.” It’s all about dependency.
I don’t trust anything this government or their willing shills in MSM will do to further their agenda.
I guess if a little twerp who steals his mother’s guns and shoots defenseless children can be a national tragedy, this can too if it suits their purposes. All I can think about is how the reaction can further curtail our liberties. Some of the obvious lines of argument will be that we need to get rid of ALL threats to our safety, e.g. guns, and EVERYONE needs to be investigated to find out who did this.
One of the ironies here is that the date of the Boston Marathon is chosen to commemorate the Lexington and Concord incident, which only occurred because the British were coming to empty out the weapons the Colonials had stored. Like Piers Morgan, they believed the Americans had no need for all those guns and ammunition.
My very first thought upon hearing this news was “The headline writes itself. ‘And this is why we need strict, common-sense gun control.'”
I’m obscurely aware that this makes me a bad person.
I saw a lot of comments on news articles asking why the president took so long to comment, so I think he did it because that’s what presidents do.
(I’m thinking of the speeches after Pearl Harbor, 911, etc. )
Although the fact is, this president would hold a press conference for a pothole if he thought it would make him look good.
Other eyewitnesses mentioned seeing a whole lot more security at this race than in previous years, even the National Guard was right there. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing at full attention right now.
Just day-dreaming here…
I’d like to compare last night’s speech, to the one he *finally* made re: Benghazi and then Newtown. I heard a lot of recycled crap. Re: Benghazi, he was criticized for being AWOL so that’s enough to explain getting on and saying something, anything last night… with Newtown, it was all about the children… and he re-used that phrase again.
WHY does Eric Holder have to personally arrive on the scene while the BPD/FD are doing an excellent job checking each and every package? What possible skill set does Holder have in finding and safely detonating bombs?
And what were people saying – those on site before the explosions – about being told that the bomb-sniffing dogs were just “a drill” – both before the race, and just before the explosions? What was that all about? LE doesn’t usually have time to run “drills” during events with that many people involved…
and lastly: what a coincidence that the Weekly Standard ran a lengthy expose of Morris Dees and the SPLC last week… and discredited their list of homegrown “hate groups” as a PO Box, a man and his dog — even verified that this is the case via some SPLC employees.
I’m not saying any of this means a blessed thing. But it’s making me wonder…
Cell phones may have stopped working due to over demand. Also cell phones are often used to detonate bombs. Obama will be damned if he addresses the country and he will be damned if he doesn’t address the country by those looking to damn him.
A lot of times when there are bombs involved, they cut off cell service temporarily because they can inadvertently set off any other bombs in the area. Terrorists, (no matter where they’re from) often use cell phones to detonate bombs
Does Bill Ayers have an alibi?
I work in telecom, and know a bit about telecommunications blackouts during emergencies. Generally, the phone system can support a small percentage of the people who use it. During normal everyday use, this is not a problem because only a few people are on the phone at any one time. When there is an emergency, nearly everyone gets on the phone to start talking about it. Then the people on the other end want to hear details, and they ask over and over whether the person at the emergency is okay. While they are on the phone, they are not paying attention to what is around them, and might walk into a hazard. Multiply that by a few hundred thousand people; the communications network fills up, and people are milling around like idiots. That makes it impossible for the emergency services to use the phone network. These are people who are trying to send information about how many casualties and the nature of their injuries, among other information.
The people twiddling and yapping tend to have an attitude that their phone conversation is the most important thing in the world, and it uses no cell network resources, and cannot be bothered to keep it short and get off the net. The people making decisions about how to get the airwaves clear for police and paramedics are hardware centric, the only solutions that they can think of are ones that involve turning hardware on and off. There are also power-hungry petty tyrants who get their rocks off by turning off people’s communications; the ones who leave the cell network off long after the initial emergency situation is passed. This combination of user selfishness and authoritarian malice makes government seizure of the communications networks inevitable.
JWG is correct, and newer reports (take all with a 50 kilo grain of salt) now claim that cell service was not deliberately shut down, that the system did in fact overload (something we’ve seen before). You wouldn’t want to see the phone bill if all networks were designed to operate at theoretical peak traffic.
Reports are also backing away from the “suspect is Saudi Arabian”, to “a Saudi person of interest”, to a “person of Arab descent being questioned”. For what it’s worth, supposedly they’re now looking into a vague silhouette seen on a rooftop. I don’t think I’ll bother following this anymore. Someone let me know if it looks like actual facts come out.
Now comes the banning of backpacks, garbage cans, and marathons.
To be fair cutting the cell phone service is a rational thing to do. From a bombers pov planting secondary devices to detonate when the emergency services arrive is the logical thing to do. Triggering them with a mobile phone removes the guess work in response times. Planting a car bomb at one or two intersections would a good move enabling the bomber to cause massive carnage. If I were OIC on the scene cutting the phone network and jamming civilian radio frequencies would be something I would prioritise.
There was no shutdown of cell service.
Fact.
I only know what I read, but this whole picture, as we have come to expect about everything these days, gets curiouser and curiouser.
http://debka.com/article/22914/The-Tsarnaev-brothers-were-double-agents-who-decoyed-US-into-terror-trap