Today's Tale from Gun Nutty USA

I offer a daily item in this spot--some tragedy that's particularly horrid.  Today's:  Boy, 5, in ol' Kentucky,  shoots and kills sister, age 2, with rifle.  Coroner "said the children's mother was at home when the shooting occurred, and the gun was a gift the boy received last year." Just a "crazy accident."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/04/30/2621458/5-year-old-boy-accidentally-shoots.html#storylink=cpy

Joe Nocera at the NYT does a daily collection of incidents.  Here's today's, plus some highlights:

Denver, Colo., police are investigating a Monday shooting that left an 8-year-old boy in critical condition. The boy was sitting in the backseat of a car driven by his parents when a bullet entered through the back, near the license plate. It is unclear if the car the boy sat in was targeted or in the wrong place at the wrong time.

—Denver Post

A man and woman were shot in front of their house in Dallas, Tex., by the woman’s ex-boyfriend Monday night. Both victims were shot multiple times. The man is expected to survive, but police say the woman is in critical condition. 32-year-old Lenar Alexander Corales was named as a suspect.

—The Dallas Morning News

A man was jailed for investigation of murder and manslaughter after fatally shooting his friend’s brother in the face during a rabbit-hunting trip in Bend. Ore., Sunday afternoon. The suspect, Montana Silk Marlett, 24, fled after shooting 19-year-old Devon Moschetti.

—The Oregonian

Larry David: Too Soon?

NYT's public editor Margaret Sullivan with new column critiqueing decision to run that Larry David column on Sunday, portraying how his mother might have reacted to Larry being a suspect in the Boston bombing.  She concludes:  too insensitive, also, alas, "unfunny."  Context:  "Humor is hard to gauge, of course. What works for some people doesn’t work for others. (And Mr. David’s material often cracks me up.) Some people have much more stomach than others for jokes that are in questionable or plain old bad taste. And the question of timing is tricky. New Yorkers may remember Gilbert Gottfried booed for making a 9/11 joke at the Friars Club, with audience members shouting, 'Too soon, too soon.'”

CNN Opens "Pandora" Box

You may have heard about upcoming controversial doc Pandora's Promise, which aired at Sundance--and just bought today by CNN Films to be shown on TV later.  It claims that nuclear power will save us from climate change problems and more--and that there's a wide trend of former anti-nukers (such as Stewart Brand) and environmentalists backing it.  Here's interview with director Robert Stone.  Claims "tipping point."  Your thoughts?

Nothing Funny About These Cartoonists

As they collaborate on cool and important video demanding action on gun control.  Many of the greats, old and new, here from Garry Trudeau and Jeff Keane and Roz Chast to Tom Tomorrow, Ted Rall and Steve Brodner.  Narrated by Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Finally, Pro B-Baller Comes Out

UPDATE #2  And now Bruni (see below) has done a Q & A with Collins.  Some good stuff, including his chat with Obama, which he feared was the world's biggest "practical joke." 

UPDATE #1:  NYT's Frank Bruni, who came out quite some time ago, with moving column tonight.

MLB players applaud.  Not a given.

 Earlier:   Just posted by Sports Illustrated.  It's center Jason Collins and he writes first-person account.

"I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.

"I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different.' If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."  And he'll be marching. "The recent Boston Marathon bombing reinforced the notion that I shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect. Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?"

Kobe Bryant says he's "proud" Collins came out.  Bill Clinton tweets that he's proud to call him his "friend."  

Boomer and Bust?

Urp, this hits kinda close to home.  New numbers show an alarming, and unprecedented, climb in the suicide rate for (us) (we) Baby Boomers. 

Although experts have long thought of midlife as a time of stability and emotional contentment, baby boomers are proving to be an unfortunate exception. Reversing a longtime demographic trend, midlife suicides are on the rise for the generation born between 1946 and 1964.

National figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the suicide rate for people in this age group rose by almost 30 percent during the decade ending in 2010, even as the rate among people 85 and older – traditionally, the demographic most likely to kill themselves – dropped by 12 percent.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/22/5360483/grim-rise-in-suicides-by-baby.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

Poll: Americans Oppose Action vs. Syria, N. Korea

NYT reports on new poll finding by large margin Americans oppose intervention in Syria's civil war--and feel North Korea's nuclear threat can be contained by other means.  So  the scare-mongers have failed for now.  But the public in the NYT/CBS survey does back the continued use of drones as killing machine, with 70% approval.   Louis Brown, 50, a poll respondent from Springfield Township, Ohio, described Syria and North Korea in a follow-up interview as “political hotbeds.” In his view, “we don’t need additional loss of American lives right now.”

Black Ball

Amazing find:  oldest film footage of black baseball players surfaces--from 1917.  And game played on a plantation.  Jackie Robinson arrived, 30 years later. 

The 'Theater' of Chemical Weapons and Syria

New piece by veteran scribe Robert Fisk at London's The Independent worth a look.  I had noted the NYT hyping the Israeli claims for two days last week.  It's a complex issue but Obama's "red line" in the sand makes it very important.  Fisk may go a bit too far but need more skepticism like this.  "In any normal society the red lights would now be flashing, especially in the world's newsrooms. But no. We scribes remind the world that Obama said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a 'game changer' – at least Americans admit it is a game – and our reports confirm what no one has actually confirmed. Chemical arms used."

Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley Film Here

One of the two upcoming flicks about Jeff Buckley just debuted at Tribeca film fest, and now here's trailer.  It's titled, oddly, Greetings from Tim Buckley--that's his dad--and stars Penn Badgley (who I met two years ago at an Occupy event that we spoke at).    It seems to focus on Jeff's breakthrough when he guested at a Brooklyn tribute to Jeff.

Leonard Curious About George

Somehow, I've never associated Leonard "He's My Man" Cohen with George Jones--who has?--but there was Leonard this weekend hailing George and playing his great single "Choices" in one of the encores for his concert in Winnipeg.   Sorry, no video of that yet, but for an explanation here's Leonard from a few years back:I listened to country as a kid. I could get WWVA from West Virginia, late at night. Have you heard George Jones’ last record, Cold Hard Truth? I love to hear an old guy laying out his situation."  Here's George doing "Choices."

Redford on the Run

My new piece at The Nation on Robert Redford's new movie on '60s radicals on the run. 

Paul Newman, Beyond 'Mad Men'

The great actor and citizen Paul Newman was portrayed briefly on Mad Men last night, speaking at a dinner in favor of Sen. Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and against the Vietnam war.  As it happens, at the time of that speech in the show, I was head of my campus campaign for McCarthy.  Anyway, here is brief clip of Paul a year later, opposing the war, and asking people NOT to attend his films or any others on the first Moratorium day.  UPDATE  In case you wondered, the Mad Men scene based closely on real-life, with Newman speaking to ad awards dinner and guest shouting out.

Prof. Petraeus

Fun post mocking the general's new teaching position.  Parents, lock up your daughters!

Student Shoots Self in Classroom

In a Cincinnati-area school today, a kid took out a gun and tried to kill himself. Rushed to hospital.   This story, however, has one injured and one apprehended (same person?).    In any case, the threat is "over."  Catholic boys school.

Today's Tale from Gun Nutty USA

Today's story in our daily feature comes via David Frum and it's from Oregon.   A mentally unstable woman is turned away by one store but goes to Dick's and easly gets one, then shoots and kills herself (on the other hand, she could have shot dozens).  No real background check on her background.  She'd been hospitalized many, many times recently.

No restrictions apply to people like Nyhof Dunn, whose battles with bipolar disorder and major depression drove her to voluntarily enter residential psychiatric care 13 times in the final year of her life. The month she died, Multnomah County sheriff's deputies visited her home after she told a 9-1-1 operator she planned to hang herself in her parents' barn.

An estimated 44 percent of the 656 Oregonians who killed themselves in 2011 suffered documented cases of mental illness, based on medical examiners' reports. And about 143,000 Oregonians experienced serious mental illness in the last year, based on survey data from 2010 and 2011.
 

Drones: Coll and Response

Important new piece from upcoming issue of The New Yorker by the expert Steve Coll just posted.  It's a review of new books by Mark Mazzetti and Jeremy Scahill, and more.  "Obama’s enthusiasm for drones—which he believes minimizes the risk to American forces and non-combatants on the ground—is unnervingly reminiscent of Eisenhower’s enthusiasm for poisoning schemes and coup plots. (The President’s foreign-policy advisers periodically cite Eisenhower as an inspiration.) Drone strikes are also defended on the ground that they have killed terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen before those terrorists could kill Americans in Times Square or on the Mall, in Washington. There is no way to assess these claims: the official secrecy surrounding the program makes it impossible to judge the results."

It is also far from clear that killing leaders is even a reliable means of disrupting terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Jenna Jordan, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Aaron Mannes, of the University of Maryland, have separately reviewed dozens of past campaigns by governments to destroy terrorist organizations and found that culling leaders works in some instances—especially when terrorist groups are young and small—but not in others. The approach is particularly ineffective against religious organizations, which tend to regroup and escalate violence in response to such efforts.

Besides, as the Boston Marathon bombing reminded us, terrorist plots can be hatched and carried out by individuals acting independently of any chain of command.
America’s drone campaign is also creating an ominous global precedent. Ten years or less from now, China will likely be able to field armed drones. How might its Politburo apply Obama’s doctrines to Tibetan activists holding meetings in Nepal?

Wolf Not at the Door

Police tonight revealed tonight that CNN icon Wolf Blitzer was target of a hoax Saturday night claiming that he'd been shot at his Bethesda home.  Police arrived in force but no Wolf.   He wasn't even there as a hologram.  This was latest in this type of "celeb" hoax.

How'd hoaxters do it?  "In the case involving Blitzer, the person or people behind the fraud wrote some form of text message, Starks said. The message was set up to seem like it was from Blitzer himself, and it included his address. It appeared to have been sent through a mobile phone company’s “relay” system, which is part of an arrangement to pass on urgent messages to the police’s emergency communications center, Starks said. But exactly where the message originated remains unclear, he said."

“We don’t know where these people are. They could be in New Zealand,” Starks said. What will happen next in terms of an investigation remains unclear as well, Starks said. “We’re trying to determine what kind of source it came from.”

Blitzer was out of town when the cruisers set up outside his house

Love Is Beck

The surprisingly giant 1968 hit instrumental "Love Is Blue" closes Mad Men tonight.  Just as surprising Jeff Beck recorded a guitar-laden version.

From 'Street Reporter' to Bomber Defender

Meet the public defender for surviving Boston Bomber.  Intereting:  Was well regarded Miami reporter.  Now will be "most reviled." 

I met Conrad in the early 1980s when we were both rookie reporters in the Miami Herald’s Ft. Lauderdale newsroom. I recall a tiny, funny and fiercely intelligent woman — the sort that patronizing male colleagues might call spunky before they became acquainted with Conrad’s startlingly powerful rabbit punch.

“She was a real street journalist, and smarter than the rest of us,” recalls Ernie Torriero, a Voice of America editor who worked with Conrad at the Herald and later at the Kansas City Times. Christine Spolar, an editor for London’s Financial Times who attended Northwestern University with Conrad and has remained a close friend for 35 years, remembers an analytical journalist who “loved to explore the whys and what-ifs” and worried perpetually that she had overlooked some critical witness to the story she was trying to tell.

Scoop from Unlikely Source

Who'd a thunk the venerable NY Review of Books would track down the alleged mentor of Boston bomber?  "Allakhverdov said he had known Tamerlan in Boston, where he lived until about three years ago, and has not had any contact with him since. He declined to describe the nature of his acquaintance with Tamerlan or the Tsarnaev family, but said he had never met the family members who are now accusing him of radicalizing Tamerlan. He also confirmed he had been interviewed by the FBI and that he has cooperated with the investigation."

I’ve been cooperating entirely with the FBI. I gave them my computer and my phone and everything I wanted to show I haven’t done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me. And the agents who talked told me they are about to close my case.

This Date in Beatles, and Aretha, History

On this day in 1966 the Beatles started recording "Eleanor Rigby."  Not my favorite Beatles track and I bet you've never heard this rocking, perhaps not quite successful,  Aretha version in 1971:

Jackie Robinson: Who's That?

Love this new Rasmussen poll, which found only 59% of Americans with "favorable" view of baseball pathfinder Jackie Robinson.  Now, you might think that's an awful low number, since Jackie did nothing but good.  But then we learn that 36% "do not know enough" about him to offer a view!  So better than one in three don't really know him--despite all of the publicity just this week and a new film that is #1 at the box office.

UPDATE: Finally got to see the film today and it's quite good, though with a couple of scenes--and much schmaltzy music--that should have been cut.   But in a revealing sign of how weak Americans now are at history--the movie opens with the "Based on a True Story" card.   Duh.  But not duh for many.  Sad.

Dallas Green: Managing Grief

NYT sports section with a piece today about the new memoir by former major league manager and pitcher Dallas Green.  If you've forgotten (or never known):  It was his grand-daughter, age 9, who was shot and killed in the attack on Gabby Giffords.  Dallas is now a big gun control advocate.

I go way back with him.  As a kid, I saw him pitch in the late-1950s for the Buffalo Bisons on his way to the Phillies.  Then it happens that one of my New York friends, as a kid, used to babysit for Dallas and his wife down in Delaware.  He remained very close to Dallas's son John, who became a baseball scout (and gave us advice on our fantasy baseball team).  When Dallas became manager of the Yanks and Mets, my friend would get tickets from the Greens and we'd sit right behind the dugout with Dallas's  wife, a wonderful woman (who took up skydiving in her 60s).  I got to take my son to a game there, where he got his first baseball hit into the stands.

Anyway:  Read the Times' piece.  As you can imagine, Dallas still hasn't gotten over the shooting.  Nor should we.

Kubrick's "Napoleon" Complex

As you may have heard, Steven Spielberg has announced plans to finally bring to the screen the fabled Napoleon planned by his late friend Stanley Kubrick.  I'd heard about the script for decades (since Strangelove and Paths of Glory are both in my Top Ten), with Rod Steiger at one time in the leading role, decades back.  Anyway, I've now downloaded the 155-page original script, via Raindance, and now here it is for you.  Spoiler alert:  Nap meets his Waterloo, ends up in exile.

Stones Live in L.A. Last Night

Played surprise club gig before big tour.

Sarah Palin, Hypocrite-in-Chief

The former half-term governor tonight on Twitter  attacked the White House Correspondents Dinner  as "pathetic. The rest of America is out there working our asses off while these DC assclowns throw themselves a #nerdprom."   Naturally, that's her at left--attending one of the after-parties for the 2011 dinner, with her host, Greta van Susteran.  She was billed as the biggest "get" that year.  And here she is smiling at the MSNBC after-party that year--taking another break from working her ass off.   And at the famous Vanity Fair after-party.   Earlier that day she also mingled with asshats at the #nerdprom brunch, although she did skip the dinner.

Greg Mitchell's new book, "Hollywood Bomb," was published this week.  It explores the wild story of the unmaking--by Harry Truman and others--of "the most important movie" ever made, an MGM epic warning about The Bomb.  

Daniel Day-Lewis IS Barack Obama

Another parody video aired at tonight's Correspondents' Dinner, with Spielberg.

A Full 'House' for Celeb Journos

As if to prove the claim that they are nothing but celeb wannabes, some of D.C.'s not-so-finest appear in (admittedly clever) House of Cards parody aired at Correspondents Dinner tonight.

Jazzfest Memories

Day two in New Orleans today.  Well, a day two not long ago. 

Gunning for the Truth

Riveting piece for the NYT tonight by a novelist who deeply loved guns--until he accidentally shot and killed a friend. 

The gun lobby likes to say guns don’t kill people, people do. And they’re right, of course. I killed my friend; no one else did; no mechanism did. But this oversimplifies matters (as does the gun control advocates’ position that eliminating weapons will end violent crime).

My friend was killed by a man who misunderstood guns, who imagined that comfort with — and affection for — guns was a vital component of manhood. I did not recognize a gun for what it was: a machine constructed for a purpose, one in which I had no real interest. I treated a tool as an essential part of my identity, and the result is a dead man and a grieving family and a survivor numbed by guilt whose story lacks anything resembling a proper ending.

Rockabilly George

The late George Jones recorded some pure rockabilly singles in the late 1950s as "Thumper Jones."  They didn't sell and he later claimed he was embarrassed by them.  But you will see, no reason to:

Down But Not Dead

Frightening moment last night in Port Chester, NYC, as ex-Grateful Deader Bob Weir, age 65, collapses on stage.   Helped up he refused to exit, though sat in a chair for awhile, to cheers, but ultimately leaving.  Need update on condition.

Mary Thom Dies in Cycle Crash

Prominent feminist writer and longtime Ms. editor Mary Thom was killed in a motorcycle crash on Friday, my local paper reports today.  Yes, I met her a couple of times in the 1970s.  She was a longtime cyclist and never owned a car.  Besides her books and editing work, she was a consultant for several non-profit women’s organizations, including the National Council for Research on Women and the Women’s Media Center.

George Sings Hank

Greatest country writer meets greatest country singer ever, as George Jones sings Hank.

Glenn and Bill on Drones, Secrecy and More

This weekend's Bill Moyers show kicking off with Glenn Greenwald, then more.  Whole show:

'Kill Team' Best Doc

The Kill Team seems like a worthy winner of a Best Doc award at Tribeca Film Fest last night. Trailer:

Obama Wakes Up

After an illuminating tour through the oh-so-objective new Bush Library (perhaps with guide Judy Miller), President Obama today ordered the re-invasion of Iraq.  Actually, his logic is at least as valid as Bush's in 2003.  And maybe he just wants to land on an aircraft carried in a flight suit.  Well, according to The Onion:

The president told reporters that the museum’s numerous displays provided illuminating information concerning the ongoing threat posed by Iraq and the necessity of re-deploying combat troops in order to bring stability and lasting democracy to the troubled country.

“I have no doubt in my mind, after spending some time in Mr. Bush’s library and museum, that the United States simply must intervene in Iraq in order to temper volatility in the Middle Eastern region as a whole,” Obama said, noting that bombers and approximately 250,000 ground troops were currently en route to the Middle Eastern nation. “The way I now see it, we have a responsibility as Americans to create that kind of change and to lead the world by example.”

“Though it will not be easy, our work in Iraq will ensure a better life for the Iraqis,” Obama continued. “And they will, I am confident, greet us as liberators.”

Today's Shooting in Gun Nutty USA

No one died, but this still almost take the cake this week: after an argument at a Little League--at the Tee-ball level no less (kids about 5 or 6)--a suspect has just been arrested in California and charged with attempted murder.

Authorities say the shooting occurred April 17 during a North Vallejo T-ball game after Chi and the father of a player argued with each other at the baseball field. The dispute continued in the parking lot and police say when the father tried to drive away, Chi opened fire and hit the vehicle. The father was not injured.

Police didn't say what started the argument.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/26/3366101/arrest-in-shooting-at-calif-little.html#storylink=cpy

George Jones, R.I.P.

One of the great country singers--and characters--ever, George Jones, has died at 81.  There was a hoax going around about this but presume now this is true.  Favorite detail from NYT obit:  "His drinking had gotten worse. At one point his wife hid the keys to all his cars, so he drove his lawn mower into Beaumont to a liquor store — an incident he would later commemorate in a song and in music videos. They were divorced not long afterward."

"The Possum" at his best:

Carjack Victim in Boston Bomb Case Speaks

Just posted by Boston Globe.   Chinese-American.  Still won't let them print his real name, even now.  He told the brothers "Chinese very friendly to Muslims!"

The story of that night unfolds like a Tarantino movie, bursts of harrowing action laced with dark humor and dialogue absurd for its ordinariness, reminders of just how young the men in the car were. Girls, credit limits for students, the marvels of the Mercedes ML 350 and the iPhone 5, whether anyone still listens to CDs -- all were discussed by the two 26-year-olds and the 19-year-old driving around on a Thursday night.

Danny described 90 harrowing minutes, first with the younger brother following in a second car, then with both brothers in the Mercedes, where they openly discussed driving to New York, though Danny could not make out if they were planning another attack. Throughout the ordeal, he did as they asked while silently analyzing every threatened command, every overheard snatch of dialogue for clues about where and when they might kill him...

He overheard them speak in a foreign language -- “Manhattan” the only intelligible word to him -- and then ask in English if Danny’s car could be driven out of state. “What do you mean?” Danny said, confused. “Like New York,” one of the brothers said. 

When the younger brother, Dzhokhar, was forced to go inside the Shell Food Mart to pay, older brother Tamerlan put his gun in the door pocket to fiddle with a navigation device -- letting his guard down briefly after a night on the run. Danny then did what he had been rehearsing in his head. In a flash, he unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door, stepped through, slammed it behind, and sprinted off at an angle that would be a hard shot for any marksman....

 

Ayn Rand in Hollywood

It may surprise many to learn that, like many famous novelists, Ayn Rand had a period when she “went Hollywood.” In 1943, Rand sold the rights for The Fountainhead to Warner Bros., and wrote the screenplay. She was then hired by top producer Hall Wallis as a writer, idea generator and script doctor. Her screenplays included the Oscar-nominated Love Letters and You Came Along. Right after the war she became involved in the anti-Communist movement in Hollywood and appeared as a friendly witness before Congress in testifying about the Red influence there.

At the same time, I’ve learned, she also had a kind of love affair—with the atomic bomb.

I learned in my research at the Truman Library concerning an MGM movie titled The Beginning or The End. As I write in my new book, Hollywood Bomb, published today,  this was the first big budget  epic about the Bomb.  The idea for the film came from atomic scientists and the first scripts raised questions about the use of the new weapon against Japan and all uses of nuclear energy in the future. By the time the Pentagon and the White House got through with it, the movie took a 180-degree turn. President Truman even edited the script and got the actor playing him in the movie fired.

But there’s also this fascinating sidebar: while the MGM film was being developed in late 1945 and early 1946, a second film was being developed by Hal Wallis—and Ayn Rand wrote the script.

The film was to be titled Top Secret. At the Truman Library, I discovered a sixteen-page outline by Rand from January 19, 1946. We folllow the lead character, named John, during the rise of Hitler, early work on the physics of the Bomb abroad, his service in the Army and then his assignment—to guard J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called Father of the Bomb, at Los Alamos. Much like the key scene in The Beginning or the End (which the White House rewrote), it shows Truman deciding to use the bomb against Japan as a last resort and strictly “to save American lives.”

Oppenheimer, after Hiroshima, tells John at Los Alamos that “the achievement was not an accident—only free men in voluntary co-operation could have done it—so long as they’re free, men do not have to fear those who preach slavery and violence.” It ends with a classic Randism, “Man can harness the universe—but nobody can harness man!” It does raise dark warnings about future threat, showing a clock ticking and the claim, “It’s later than you think!”

But a month later, a sixty-five-page section of a script (obviously sent to the White House for approval) has merged The Beginning or the End and Top Secret and included some of Rand’s writings. MGM had made a deal with Wallis to make sure there was no rival project.

How did this all start? From Rand’s own papers and journals, we learn that when she accepted the assignment from Wallis she said she’d only do it if she could express her own political and philosophical views, which might clash with the studio’s. She then interviewed many of the leading figures in the Bomb’s development, including Oppenheimer. Many years later she revealed that the character Robert Stadler in Atlas Shrugged was based on Oppenheimer. The papers also show that after MGM bought out Wallis, Rand was then free to work full-time on Atlas Shrugged.

She also wrote for Wallis an amazing and quite lengthy memo, An Analysis of the Proper Approach to a Picture on the Atomic Bomb.

Rand’s memo opens with the astounding claim that it was not the bomb itself, a mere “inanimate” object, but a bad movie about it that could turn out to be the “greatest moral crime in the history of civiilization.” After all, whether the Bomb is used again depends on the “thinking of men,” and movies were now the most influential elements in all of society. So she aimed for an “immortal achievement” that would prevent the result of “millions of charred bodies—those of our children.”
The real danger was posed by the world’s decline into “Statism” at the expense of “free enterprise.” And “Statism leads to war.” Now, with the atomic bomb in the world and Statisim on the march our days were literally numbered—unless the “trend” to Statism was “reversed.” Because: “An atomic bomb is safe only in a free society.”

But does that mean Rand hated the Bomb? Hardly. In fact, she extols its creation as “an eloquent example of, argument for and tribute to free enterprise.” As evidence she cites the fact that despite its massive state power, Germany could not create the weapon but the United States did.

But doesn’t the United States have its own form of Statism? “Our government seems to have acted properly in regard to the atomic bomb,” but don’t give the White House and Washington too much credit—it was the individual scientists who pulled it off, as if with the help of God. In fact, she argued, the film “must show clearly” that it was the scientists and the military who ran the bomb project, “not the government.” And it was the industrialists who supplied the materials. If the film showed President Roosevelt in a “favorable” light, it must do the same for DuPont.

If the studio followed her script, “the general tone of our picture will be that of a tribute to America—an epic of the American spirit.”  For more see my Hollywood Bomb, right here.

Day at the Ballpark

Leaving soon to attend Dodgers-Mets game in NYC with the estimable Robert Jay Lifton (my co-author on two books and many articles).   Back in the 1980s and 1990s we made this a nearly annual event, but now a few years have passed.  Robert is huge Dodgers fan--having grown up in Brooklyn--and has (and needs) a keen sense of humor, despite the nickname recently bestowed on him by the NYT, "Dr. Hiroshima." (Could have been worse, I guess: "Dr. Nazi Doctors'?)  Actually for many years he signed his notes to me simply "Lasorda."  My photo at left, from right field.

The 'Jon Stewart' of Egypt Visits Jon Stewart

Jon did a memorable segment recently about his arrest and now the funnyman from Cairo pays a visit.  Here's riotous extended interview (and there's a Part II).

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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More False Police/Media Reporting on Boat Capture

We suggested at the time that this would happen and now if this brand new Wash Post story is to be believed it has:  Much of what police, and then the media, told us about the siege of that boat in Watertown leading to capture of younger bro suspect turned out to be wrong.  Apparently he had no weapons (we were told he had one or even more); he never fired on cops there; that well-recorded "gunfight" was just police firing dozens of rounds into the boat, and the story about him maybe shooting himself in the neck in a suicide attempt now seems bogus (he may have been shot through the boat).  All of this raises questions about the true desire to take him alive--in fact, it seems like a miracle that he did survive.

UPDATE  And yet another wrong statement (possibly to cover up a huge error):  Police said for days that the boat was outside the search sight that day.  Now police admit it was within the search zone and a "huge error" was made. 

Bieber Fans Ask: Who the Hell is This Leonard Cohen Guy?

Fun post here on reaction of Justin Bieber fans when Leonard Cohen (almost four times his age) beat him out for top Juno Award the other night (that's sort of Grammys for Canadians).   Some choice comments from the Beliebers:

Who is this Leonard you speak of?

It appears Justin Bieber lost something to Leonard 'who's that?' Cohen?

Is it bad that I am Canadian and have no clue who 'Leonard Cohen' is?

ok what the flying fuck? WHO THE FUCK IS THIS LEONARD COHEN GUY!??!?! how the fuck did he win the JUNO like wtf is happening us?!?!?!!?

You Panting to Me?

Bob 'n Bub: I have no idea what this means but the Tribeca Film Fest in NYC seems to think it's a big deal and the photo of the year bringing together one of its founder, Mr. DeNiro and a cat famous for something or other, Lil Bub.  So here they are, and now you can explain it to me.

Iraq WMD Legacy Renewed at 'NYT'?

UPDATE  See post below on NYT hyping, at top of its site for most of the day, Israel's claims that Syria has used chemical agents against rebels "repeatedly."  Remind you of 2002-2003?  Especially when you read this Blomberg report today.   Even Bibi admits can't prove it at all.  An Israeli expert debunks.  Even John Kerry skeptical. 

Tuesday: Yes, the Times is hyping, at the top of its site, scare story by Rudoren and Sanger, swallowing in the main the Israeli claims of certain Syrian use of chemical weapons--with their obvious motivation of forcing us to go to war (instead of them) since Obama declared this a "red line" Syria could not cross.  (UPDATE:  Still at top of site at 7 p.m ET)  Look far down in the story, however--a trick learned from Judy Miller and Michael Gordon in days of olde--and you'll find that Israel's evidence is mainly based on photos--and specifically, victims "foaming at the mouth."  Of course, one can find plenty of attacks by others, including Israel, in the past that left victims with the same "foaming."  Soil samples not available.  And again get warning about "stockpiles."

Still, it's an issue worth monitoring, as less biased nations in this matter--Great Britain and France--with perhaps more evidence also charge Syria with using chem weapons.

Five Shot Dead in Illinois

UPDATE:  Dead now listed as grandmother, young couple, two kids, age 1 and 5, and the other kid in serious condition.

Earlier: Yes, I know, there were dozens seriously injured in Boston, with a number of amputations, but the three dead is equaled or topped at least once a week in multiple shootings around the USA.   Today's example:  five killed overnight in Illinois.  Suspect was on the loose for a couple of hours, then captured.  "The pastor of Manchester Baptist Church tells KSDK-TV that the shootings took place inside a public housing complex. At least one of the victims is a child, according to the Scott County Sheriff's Department."  Apparently one girl survived.  These were the first murders in the town in 43 years. 

Updates on Texas Plant Disaster

My hot new piece at The Nation yesterday found found famed EPA whistleblower calls for criminal probe of Texas fertilizer plant--and claims media falling down on the job, citing NYT, Reuters, Huff Post.  Now today a major update (among several) from Randy Loftis of the Dallas Morning News, who I mentioned in my piece.  How's this for an opener:

Texas’ environmental agency knew in 2006 that West Fertilizer Co. was handling 2,400 tons a year of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate in a warehouse near schools, houses and a nursing home, documents show.  The notation in a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permit form apparently raised no concerns, either internally or with other agencies, about explosion risks or the proper management of a chemical already notorious in Texas history for its deadly qualities when heated to extreme temperatures or exposed to shock.

Meanwhile, Rick Perry touts the state's weak regulations in bid to get companies to move there.

So Much for 'Austerity'

You may have read about that UMass-Amherst student who found a mistaken number in an Excel program that debunked that study oft-cited by GOPers to "prove" that we need super austerity, now.  Last night Stephen Colbert did a fun segment (and later had the student in the studio).

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Ricin Suspect's Bizarre Evening With Piers

The Elvis impersonator seems to be off the hook for the ricin letters, but perhaps made the mistake of going on with Piers Morgan on CNN tonight.

Petraeus Coming to CUNY

Mothers, lock up your daughters!  General David Petraeus has signed on to teach as a visiting prof at the City University of New York.   He was courted by others but is "all in" there, allegedly because he likes the diversity.  Meanwhile, Paula Broadwell, a former student of a kind, is in the same Ph.D program as my daughter in London.

Ten Years Ago: Judy Miller's Fallback Positon

It was ten years ago today that Judith Miller in the NYT tried to weasel out of her shame in hyping the Iraqi WMD program--helping Bush go to war--by asserting in the Times, as WMS searchers came up empty, that actually she was right, but that sneaky Saddam had moved or destroyed the stocks before the invasion!  Love this:

Based on what the Iraqi scientist had said about weapons being destroyed or stocks being hidden, military experts said they now believed they might not find large caches of illicit chemicals or biological agents, at least not in Iraq. They said this would increase their reliance on documents and testimony from individual Iraqis to help them piece together the scope, organization, and goals of the programs that the United States has said Saddam Hussein created and concealed from the world.

Photos of Shootout

Andrew Kitzenberg, who got a good deal of attention the other night for his cell phone video of the shootout in Watertown, has now posted a dozen remarkable photos at his site, showing the shooters firing, brother storming off in car that would eventually run over his sibling, and more.  Isn't this news that they had TWO cars--the hijacked SUV plus suspect's green car?  News to me, anyway.

Book Him, Dano

Didn't even know this was happening, but there's a Brian Wilson biopic coming out (he's also writing a memoir), and Paul Dano was already booked to play Bri as young man. Now we learn that John Cusack may play him as his older, fatter, crazier self.  Very high, but with fidelity?

Also, another flick on drummer Dennis Wilson starring Aaron Eckhart--with Vera Farmiga as Christine McVie, his old flame. 

Nixon's Secret War--and Obama's

Thirty-three years ago I was in college and we shut down the school that spring over Kent State and the U.S. bombing of Cambodia.  Now here's an important piece in The Atlantic drawing links between then and now--the Obama drone war.   One point is that, as Williams Shawcross showed, the bombing made things worse in Cambodia and helped bring the Khmer Route to power.  Now:

The thousands of people killed so far by drone strikes represent a fraction of the several hundred thousand who died beneath the B-52s between 1969 and 1975. But the level of fear and anger -- and the opportunity for insurgent groups to harness those emotions -- cannot be so easily calculated.

In the words of retired General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, one can't help but hear an echo of Charles Meyer, Richard Dudman, and other observers of the Cambodia campaign. "What scares me about the drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world," McChrystal said last month. "The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes...is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who've never seen one or seen the effects of one."

A Poem for Bomb Suspect #2

Amanda Palmer has done it, and now getting all sorts of flack (and some support) for it.  Read it here and decide for yourself, and post here or there or anywhere.   Excerpt:

you don’t know how precious your iphone battery time was until you’re hiding in the bottom of the boat.

you don’t know how to get away from your fucking parents.

you don’t know how it’s possible to feel total compassion in one moment and total disconnection in the next moment.

you don’t know how things could change so incredibly fast.

you don’t know how to make something, but the instructions are on the internet.

you don’t know how to make sense of this massive parade.

you don’t know how to believe anyone anymore.

Richie Havens Dies at 72

The legendary folk singer/guitarist Richie Havens has passed away.  He is still best known, unfortunately, for his appearance in Woodstock movie--not that it was bad, must a very limited look.  I saw him perform many times and he was by all accounts a great guy.  One of my favorites of his was Dylan's "Just Like a Woman."  And then there's "All Along the Watchtower."

Michael Shannon Scarifies Sorority Girl's Rant

Unless you were under a rock last week you probably saw a reference to--even if you didn't see--a sorority girl's rant against her lame-ass friends.  Now, for Funny or Die, the great Michael Shannon acts it out.  And here's Alison Haislip's earlier version:

Brokaw Links U.S. Drone War to Terror Attacks Here

My new post at The Nation:  Old marbles-in-mouth, Tom Brokaw,  asks media to cover U.S. drone warfare as factor in Boston and other terror attacks. 

Steubenville Football Coach--Remember Him?--Gets New Contract

Yes, Reno gets a two-year extension.  Salon reports here.

The day after Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond raped an unconscious teenage girl, Mays texted a friend: “I got Reno. He took care of it and shit ain’t gonna happen, even if they did take it to court. Like he was joking about it so I’m not worried,” according to an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation who testified in the case. In addition to the text message, Soccocia was criticized for failing to discipline players involved in circulating the photos of the unconscious victim until eight games into a 10-game season.

The Atlantic Wire has confirmed the appointment. 

Full Complaint Against Bomb Suspect

UPDATE:  And now we have transcript of his court proceeding today, with reading of Miranda rights, and his nods.  And does say "no."

Earlier:  Here's link to the the complaint against the surviving bomb suspect.  In latest, Obama says he will be tried in civilian court--and  already appeared before a magistrate, who came to the hospital.   Charged with using a "weapon of mass destruction."   Also, his wounds appear more extensive than previously described.

Fresh details on the carjacking:  Driver told by older brother right away that he was dealing with the bomber.  But younger brother NOT with him at time.  Driver forced to go pick him up, and then stuff loaded in trunk. Driver NOT set free but escaped at gas station.  No mention at all of attack on MIT cop--perhaps just local matter.

Worst Opening Night Ever

Kid's first night anchoring local news in North Dakota doesn't go so well.  His first words, as shows opens and he's about to be introduced: "Fuckin' shit."  He had just admitted on Twitter that he was nervous, and later noted things didn't too well.  A little while ago he was suspended by the NBC affiliate.  Deadspin has video and update.  Or watch below.   Station went on air and apologized.   But already there's a Reinstate Him page on Facebook.   UPDATE  A.J. Clemente just tweeted, "Unfortunately KFYR-TV has decided to let me go. Thank you to them and everyone in ND for the opportunity and everyone for the support."  Adds:  "Rookie mistake. I'm a free agent.Cant help but laugh at myself and stay positive. Wish i didnt trip over my 'Freaking Shoes' out of the gate."

Boston Suspects Mom on Tamerlan Laying Down the 'Law'

ABC coming up with fresh interview with Boston suspects' mom.   Kirit Radia in Moscow talked to her and   has been tweeting highlights, which are, as he writes:

--"What Tamerlan said was law for Dzhokhar. That’s how I raised them."

--She urged Tamerlan to embrace Islam in 2008, concerned abt his drinking smoking & girls. He started reading more on web

--Tamerlan "was a person of strong will. He was a leader" who could influence people, says US gov was afraid of him

--FBI has visited relatives in the US after Friday's shootout, confiscated cell phones and computers

 --Tamerlan called last time during shootout, said Dhzokhar was w him. She screamed & cried, line dropped. Sister told her he died

Boston Suspects Had No Permits for Guns

We've been noting here for three days that a largely-overlooked angle in the coverage of the Boston bombers in recent days is:  Where did they get their guns, used to fire on (and kill) police?  Still don't know--though now we know they were "illegal"--but here's part of an AP piece:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts police official say the brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon before having shootouts with authorities didn’t have gun permits.  Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas tells The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that neither Tamerlan Tsarnaev nor his brother Dzhokhar had permission to carry firearms.

He says it’s unclear whether either ever applied and the applications aren’t considered public records.  But he says the 19-year-old Dzhokhar (joh-KHAR') would have been denied a permit because of his age. Only people 21 or older are allowed gun licenses in Massachusetts.

Tamerlan Called Mom Just Before He Died

 Remarkable opening to Wall Street Journal story tonight. 

After last week's Boston Marathon bombings, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva phoned her son Tamerlan in Massachusetts to make sure he was safe.

"Mama, why are you worrying?" Tamerlan replied from Boston, laughing.

Days later, it was the son who phoned his mother. The two, in recent years, had shared a powerful transformation to a more intense brand of Islam.

"The police, they have started shooting at us, they are chasing us," Mrs. Tsarnaeva says Tamerlan told her. "Mama, I love you." Then the phone went silent.

Soon, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 years old and a prime suspect in the bloody marathon bombings, was dead.

Number One Hits: Seconds in Paradise

Is this the greatest audio file ever?  Go to UbuWeb and see two tiny arrows at top.  They will deliver the first 3 or 4 seconds of EVERY #1 Billboard single since 1956--starting almost with Elvis's "Heartbeak Hotel" --going to 1991. Yes, I was alive and listening all the way back.  Old enough to remember "The Wayward Wind."   Lot of whipsawing early on, with Elvis mixed in with Perry Como and Debbie Reynolds.  Then Pat Boone.  The Chipmunks.  Sam Cooke--then Bobby Vinton ruling the charts until, wham, The Beatles arrive--and on (eventually) to David Bowie.   One thing it does NOT capture is that most of these hits ruled for only one week, while others held the top spot for five weeks or longer. (h/t Chris Bowers)

One of the all-time greats:

Liberals Call for Death

Believe me, I'm hardly surprised to read that Senators Schumer and Feinstein have both now called for executing the surviving Boston bomb suspect if found guilty.  It's a liberal tradition.  Both of them come from states that have stopped executing people.  As I said two days ago, as I did when Tim McVeigh was captured--I remain against capital punishment in all cases.  The title of the book I wrote not long ago with Robert Jay Lifton sort of says it: "Who Owns Death?"  You can also see my ebook: "Dead Reckoning." 

Facts here:  only 21countries carried out executions last year.  U.S. ranked 5th highest. 

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

Continuing my weekly feature, here's one of the lesser known--but one of the most beautiful--Beethoven slow movements, prefiguring the "Archduke," in my mind.

Unanswered Questions About Thursday Night

Weigh in below or via Twitter if you wish.  Still no explanation at all for 1) why two suspects shot MIT cop who was just sitting in his car  2) carjacked that SUV 3) told SUV owners they were bombers  4) provide your own.   If idea is that they wanted to die, why didn't they later kill themselves?

Also, as I asked two days ago but media show little interest: How did they get their guns? Normally when cop is killed that is asked forcefully. And Massachusetts tough gun control state.   Internet?  Gun show?  Buddies?  And how NRA policies "hobbled" Boston manhunt.

He Went Down In the Ship

Mass. State Police finally release video from helicopter from last night re: captures of second suspect.  Shows cover of boat being partly torn off; images of suspect on floor; flash bang grenades going off.  Plus, just posted, at NY Daily News, photos from inside the suspects' apartment, with uneaten meal on table.  Probably found out they were all over TV on Thursday evening,  and rushed to pack bombs in car and fled. Apartment in disarray--but you can imagine the police searches.   One presumes computers were seized right away.

Incident at the Mosque

L.A. Times with report tonight that older Boston bombing suspect got kicked out of his mosque just three months ago for shouting at the Imam--for the sin of praising Martin Luther King Jr. as someone to emulate.  Tamerlan complained that MLK Jr. was not even Muslim.  As per other stories, sources described brother as chill but Tamerlan as troublemaker.  Too many punches to the head, or something.  But what was that something?

In the Hands of the Tsarnaeva's Mom

I know this may sound funny, if I simply say--article by woman who got facials from the alleged Boston bombers' mother.  But it is a revealing up-close look at the family--with regular visits to their apartment--that's hard to top, if legit.  My guess is that it is, there's so much detail and no reason to write this for fun.  See it here.  (Huff Post has now talked to author.)  She had many interactions with the younger brother--she even gave him her keys to move her car--but not much with older bro or the father.

She adds a little detail added on mystery of my family had to flee and got asylum in U.S.   Juan Cole suggests in great piece it's because dad was on wrong side of conflict--working for the Russians in security.  He then theorizes that the two sons were humiliated by their father's past of working against the Chechen rebellion and carried out the bombing partly in rebellion against him.  Yes, he mentions Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons."

Greg Mitchell’s “So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits--and the President--Failed on Iraq” has just been published in an updated e-book edition.  He is the former editor of Editor & Publisher.

Infra Dig

Mass State Police share some of their infra-red photos from last night.  One below.  More here.

Hiroshima--The Sequel--Cancelled

No, North Korea did not call off a bomb test.  Iran did not renounce its nuclear energy program.  This:  A popular air show in Dayton, Ohio, after protests, finally cancelled this weekend's planned re-enactment of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.   Actually, decades ago, Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets used to perform the stunt, but protests back then seemingly ended the practice.  And you wonder why I feel need to write about this subject--now for over 30 years.  Such as here and see below: 

Did Terrorists Win?

Richard Engel after monitoring pro-jihadi chat rooms and sites yesterday reports that they were celebrating the shutdown of Boston, people terrified, massive amount of money spent and lost--they were calling this a great win.  Of course, many here questioned the over-reaction, too--and warned that it might inspire more such attacks, not fewer.   But Engel then ridiculously claims that folks celebrating the end of the crisis last night somehow sent message that the terrorism had no such effect but the jihadis will simply ignore that.  Of course, the cheers did not wipe out the terror, the costs, the all-day lockdown etc.   But he did add that the reaction abroad did seem to suggest the two brothers were simply "lone wolves."

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Shocking Report on that Texas Fertilizer Plant

UPDATE  I propose:  State of  Texas locked down until owner and top manager located.  When arrested, don't read Miranda rights.   I'm against death penalty but Texas does love it.   Also:  What did Rick Perry know and when did he know it?  

Earlier: I said from the beginning that he owners of the West, Texas, plant that exploded killing anywhere from 14 to 50 were likely responsible for far more deaths than the Boston bombers.  And now Reuters today reports below.  Of course, Rick Perry and pals are all in favor of cutting federal oversight, regulations--and inspections. 

The fertilizer plant that exploded on Wednesday, obliterating part of a small Texas town and killing at least 14 people, had last year been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Yet a person familiar with DHS operations said the company that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, did not tell the agency about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to do, leaving one of the principal regulators of ammonium nitrate - which can also be used in bomb making - unaware of any danger there.

NYT op-ed piece today is a must-read: crime today, with a history.

That 'Terror Training' Trip to Russia

UPDATE  NYT covers this issue today, and the FBI interviewing family members in 2011.  Includes father's claim agents told Tamerlan then they were doing this "so that no one sets off bombs on the streets of Boston, so that our children could peacefully go to school."  In any case, his trip to Russia the following year apparently did not set off any bells. 

Earlier:  I noted this last night but it bears repeating, as the talking heads and writers (even David Remnick) continue to sugggest, even demand, that Tamerlan's trip to Russia quite possibly was for terror "training."     Important interview with father of suspects yesterday by NYT may largely lay to rest this all-day "expert" and media meme.  Dad says the older son went there to get a new passport and there was long delay.  Also he was rarely out of his sight and did not travel.  Saw nothing but relatives.  Some wondered if he  "came here to sleep."

Vivid Account of Brothers vs. Police

Joby Warrick at the Wash Post has a full account of the Thursday night/Friday morning showdown between the Boston bomb suspect brothers and police with new details.  But it's still unclear why they shot that MIT cop.  It guaranteed they'd get caught or killed and there was no reason to approach the poor guy in his car.  Only motive so far: they wanted to spark battle with police, go out in blaze of glory or something.  If true, then, you'd think younger bro would have later killed himself, when he had so many opportunities to do so.  Perhaps he really a puppet of older bro and when he was gone things changed.

Also, this account suggests that maybe younger bro really did kill older bro when he ran over him with his car:

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, now out of his car, attempted to lob a makeshift bomb at police, but the device exploded in his hand. While Tsarnaez was firing a pistol with the other hand, police tackled and tried to subdue the 200-pound amateur boxer.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, apparently intending to help his brother, tried to ram the officers with the Mercedes. Instead, the officers lunged out of the vehicle’s path and he ran over his brother and dragged him along the street before speeding off with police in pursuit.

Al Neuharth Dies at 89: How I'll Remember Him

The Gannett newspaper chain titan and founder of USA Today has died and he'll be remembered for mainly that but I have a different one.  When I was editor of Editor & Publisher, and railing against the Iraq war, I periodically asked in print and online: Of the hundreds of major daily newspapers in the U.S., when would just ONE--or a leading mainstream pundit--come out for starting to bring out troops home from Iraq?  And year after year, none did--until Neuharth, who was semi-retired but still writing a weekly column for USA Today did it.  

And was slammed for it.  I interviewed a couple of times about it (and he'd repeat his call more than once).  For much more, see my new book on Iraq, So Wrong for So Long.

Hunt for Suspect--and Motive--Continues

I started live-blogging at 7 a.m. this morning.  See:  dozens of updates here.  Continuing here now, as of 2:50 p.m., updated at top.

10:00  Photo of suspect in boat tonight, courtesy of CBS News--though not confirmed as legit.  Below that, suspect on ground, also CBS News.

9:30 Link: Picture of suspect in ambulance.  Meanwhile, we were told that suspect read Miranda rights --now, that feds invoking safety clause to not do that (as conservatives demanded).

Presser starts.  FBI chief on case, Richard Deslauriers,  thanks all who helped.  So do others.  Boston Police Chief Davis explains how caught but we've heard it before: Man saw tarp pulled back and blood, called police.  Hostage team "tried to talk him out of boat but he did not cooperate."  So taken out, somehow. Suspect in "serious condition."

Chief asked if he regrets giving all-clear.  He says suspect "eluded" by hiding but fortunately man called in with tip.  Fortunate, that's for sure.  They confirm: one block beyond search zone. Ouch.

U.S. attorney asked if Miranda warning not given.  She doesn't exactly answer but seems to say yes.  Doesn't know if will be federal death penalty souight  (not allowed in Mass. state law).  Reporters have many more questions but presser ends.

Obama about to speak.


9:05  As I wrote after Timothy McVeigh captured:  I'm still against capital punishment. Or see title of my book on same: "Who Owns Death?"

FBI confirms talked to dead suspect in 2011, at request of foreign gov't.

8:50  Amazing:  suspect was at UMass campus on Wednesday, sent to gym, partied that night.  Seemed relaxed.  Two nights ago.

Boston Globe:  Tsarnaev going to Mount Auburn Hospital Cambridge, same hospital where Transit Police officer is recovering from gunshot wound.

Brian Williams: With new tech "hard to get away with anything in this country anymore." Didn't mention Wall Street.

8:40  WHDH reports suspect "alive" and "in custody" and medic on scene and "it's over."  Ambulance seen pulling in.  Another source says, yes, alive.  Everyone standing down.  "Officers taking pictures to commemorate." Applause heard.  Now NBC picks up loud cheers. 

8:35  Boston Globe and others report three college-age individuals taken into custody today in New Bedford related to manhunt.  Neighborhood in lockdown.  Suspect's girlfriend allegedly lived there and he was there yesterday. 

8:15 WHDH-TV:  House with boat NOT searched today.  Police only searched 20-block perimeter and this house a block and a half away. 

8:00 Flash bangs used to disorient him.  Conflicting reports on whether he is moving or not.  Ditto on fire on boat.  Still fear of suicide vest.  Likely to end with shoot first, don't get to ask questions later.  But end surely nigh.

Now Pete Williams says fire on boat.  Suspect covered with blood.

7:45 Boston Globe twitter feed claims cover off boat, suspect not moving, bleeding, police moving with caution.  

7:30  Also reports of much gunfire in  Watertown, much activity--after search seemed to end there for now.  People being evacuated.  Started with woman saying guy in backyard under tarp of boat on trailer--and bleeding. 


7:25:  CNN tag: "Police Engaging Possible Suspect."  But no proof of that. Also reporting FBI talked to older brother in 2011 after tip from foreign government to talk about foreign ties.  But went no further.

6:05 Presser:  State police--"still no apprehension."  Search going on.  Other leads "have taken us to other places in Eastern Mass." but have led nowhere.  "Going to draw back tactical teams."  Gov. Patrick: Stay indoors order lifted everywhere.

5:40   Important interview with father of suspects may largely lay to rest this all-day "expert" and media meme that older brother may have gone to Russia for six months for terror "training."  Dad says the guy went there to get new passport and there was long delay.  Also he was rarely out of his sight and did not travel.  Saw nothing bu relatives.  Some wondered if he  "came here to sleep."

5:00  Have no idea what this means: Now they say suspects DID NOT rob 7-11.   "A statement from State Police spokesperson Dave Procopio says 'the bombers did purchase gas at a gas station in Cambridge later in the chain of events and we recovered images of them there.'" Media reported robbery for many hours.

But now raises question:  Why did they shoot MIT officer, who it's said was just sitting in car and not approaching them--especially since they did not rob the 7-11 and being hunted for that?

 Love this: CNN interviews car body shop guy who says suspect #2, who picked up car hurriedly this week, wore Louis Vuitton shoes--when complimented on them this week he said he paid $900 for them.

4:55 NYT:  Tamerlan denied U.S. citizienship--due to domestic violence incident. 

4:20  Turns out older brother was married--to an American--and had a three-year-old kid.  Report from sometimes-sketchy London's Daily Mail has him visiting wife and daughter in Rhode Island most weekends, although perhaps not in past year.   Police visited home today.

Finally hear from mother of suspects, via CNN, who like father claims "set-up."


Never thought Rep. Peter King would be voice of sanity--now tells Tapper (and others speculating on foreign plots) that "absolutely NO evidence" so far.

3:40  Oddly, have not read or heard a word about how the suspects got their guns and ammo--given fact the suspects fired up to 200 rounds at police last night (we hear).  Legal weapons?  How did they get?

Much-mentioned "third suspect" now officially shot down.

Glenn Greenwald: "The typical cable news problem: they feel compelled to talk about just this story, but don't really have anything to say & haven't for hours."  Might apply to my blogging as well?

Stop the presses! Terror expert on MSNBC just had nerve to answer a question on motives with, "I just don't know. I'd hate to speculate."

3:25 Via TV, lot of action at UMass-Dartmouth, and claim that students may have seen suspect there after Monday. 

3:15 New TV interview with suspects' father abroad.  He claims sons' "framed" i bombing and now older one shot down by police.  Talked to that son very recently and asked him to make sure brother stayed in school.

2:50:  Bobby Ghosh of Time on MSNBC wisely points out not clear why Chechens would attack USA--not at all typical for them.