(Photo: Don Petersen, AP)
It's very difficult to come up with something funny and snarky to write about tonight when at least 33 families are trying to figure out how the hell they lost a son or daughter or brother or sister or best friend or boyfriend or girlfriend in a senseless, bloodthirsty shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. In the last few hours, all I have really been able to concentrate on is praying that my God will find a way to rain mercy and comfort down on the families of those afflicted.
This is a terrible tragedy, one that will be haunting us for years to come. Still there is a part of my brain that absorbs this kind of sudden and senseless catastrophe and responds, "Welcome to what the people of Iraq go through every day."
For instance, two weeks ago in Baghdad:
BAGHDAD // Shiite militants and police enraged by deadly truck bombings went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in a northwestern Iraqi city today, killing as many as 70 men execution-style in the latest eruption of sectarian violence outside the capital.
The gunmen roamed Sunni neighborhoods in Tal Afar through the night, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician. Witnesses said relatives of the Shiite victims in the truck bombings broke into Sunni homes and killed the men inside or dragged them out and shot them in the streets.
All 70 men who died in that wave of revenge-killings were somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's favorite uncle, beloved husband, someone's true love. Larry Johnson at No Quarter has more: (h/t to Valley Girl)
Okay. Big deep breath. This is horrible and this is tragic and this gives us an idea of what it is like to live just one day in Iraq. Consider the following:
04/15/07 Reuters: 19 bodies found in Baghdad on Saturday
Police found the bodies of 19 people in various parts of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said
04/15/07 Reuters: 20 Iraqi troops and policemen abductedA group linked to al Qaeda said it abducted 20 Iraqi troops and policemen and demanded the release of all Sunni women held in Iraq's prisons, according to a Web statement
04/15/07 Reuters: 4 killed by suicide bombers in MosulFour people, including two Iraqi soldiers, were killed and 16 wounded when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside a military base in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
04/15/07 AP: Suicide bomber kills 5, wounds 11 in northwest Baghdada suicide bomber blew himself up on a minibus in northwest Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 11, police and hospital officials said.
04/15/07 AP: 37 die as car bomb hits near Iraq shrineLet's total the score: at least 65 Iraqis dead in four attacks vs. 22 Americans shot at Virginia Tech. Whoops, forgot the 20 kidnapped policemen. Can you imagine?
One of the most depressing and obscene consequences of Fox News's ongoing de-education of America and its dehumanification of Muslims, Blacks, and Latinos is that when you try to explain to conservatives that while we may have lost around 3,000 soldiers (so far) in this conflict, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died. I have tried to bring this information home to three different real-time conservative acquaintances (I do not call them friends and you're about to see why.) and all three of them have had precisely the same reaction. They shrug and say, "I don't care. It's just a bunch of Iraqis." One particularly imbecilic moron added, "They attacked us on 9/11! They deserve whatever they get!"
Yes, I asked where he gets his news. He watches a lot of Fox News and listens to Reich Wing Talk Radio all day at work. He is one of those people who registered as "barely breathing" in that latest Pew Research Poll about whose viewers are the most tragically uninformed, moronic, and defiant about it. Ah, yes, Pox News, making America dumber, one overly credulous dipshit at a time.
TBogg points out that The Usual Suspects are hastily pointing to the Virginia gunman's race (a witness described him as "Asian") as a factor in his mental collapse and murderous rampage.
Allahpundit is following closely. So far the shooter is described as an Asian man in his 20's. No word yet on motive, but the shooter is reported to be dead. Derek O'Dell, a student who was shot in the arm, has his account on MSNBC here.
Here are some AP images Via ABCNEWS. The first image matches Derek O'Dell's description of the shooter. (update this man only matches the desciption and was not the shooter, he was later released).
There's a photo with a Virginia state cop pinning an Asian student, but (oopsie!) not the gunman.
At least one shooter eyewitnesses identified as an "Asian" male wearing military load-bearing equipment has shot between 7-17 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
One fatality has been confirmed, and one shooter is in custody as the campus remains on a lockdown while police search for a second gunman. The first shootings took place in a dormitory, and a second rounds of gunfire erupted in an engineering classroom building at the opposite end of campus hours later. The campus has been shutdown and students are locked down as police scour the campus for a possible second shooter.
Whew, the assailant's race was all that Gomer the Inbred Confederate Uncle-Fucker got right in those little hastily-spewed paragraphs. These are the hazards of "citizen journalism", especially when your definition of "journalism" means hastily transcribing the screen-crawl on Fox News and posting it before your other friends in the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, thereby earning the dubious honor of a Righty Blog "scoop".
And finally, that paragon of erudition, civility, and, er, class, Ace from Ace of Spades:
Gunman Kills At Least 20 25 On Viginia Tech Campus
Update: Now 32 Confirmed Dead in the Worst Mass Shooint (Sic. Jesus, Ace…) of Any Kind In American HistoryNo Sudden Jihad Syndrome: It seems obvious to me reporters know the identity (or the basics of it) of the shooter and are not speculating about SJS. Therefore, this was your typical loser-murderer, inspired to kill by bullying and heartbreak and general inadequacy and not a political-religious ideology.
"SJS"?! Apparently, the "I'll Stay Here in My Mom's Basement While You Go Fight the Jihadi, Okay?!" crowd have invented a mythical species of derangement to account for all those sudden Jihadi killing sprees we've been (not) having in this country. "Sudden Jihadi Syndrome" is obviously where an otherwise normal Pakistani chemistry grad student can get the go-signal on his sub-dural Terrorist Activation Microchip and start mindlessly slaughtering any infidels within a hundred yards. No, really! It's real! I read it on "Ace of Spades" so it must be true!
It's that very same microchip that could cause Barack Obama to revert to his (non-existent) terrorist training in the Madrassa he (never) attended as a child. If we elect Barack Obama president, he could go all "Sudden Jihadi Syndrome" at ANY TIME. Fox News has been trying to warn us about this for months now, but will we listen? Oh, noooooo.
I just wonder if all these Uptighty-Righty Dickheads are waiting for Michelle Malkin to go berserk in a Maryland Starbucks and kill everyone in sight. She apparently meets their criteria for Sudden Jihadi Syndrome, seeing as how she's "Asian" and all.
Oh, no, wait, she's too busy blaming the press and gun-control advocates.
Whatever.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
TRex!
TRex!
Madness Madness Madness
Valley Girl @ 1
Hey VG, great minds think alike!
Madness, indeed.
Good Post under the circumstances Trex. Thank you.
AZ Matt @ 5
Seconded.
“We are all Hokies tonight.”
John Casper @ 7
Thirded
Whale Blubber. That’s what PW said you were
rightingwriting about tonight.Just read an article in the paper about one family’s experience with a “Flat Daddy”–a life size cutout of a family member serving overseas.
Sad.
Mr. Inst-ass-pundit was saying these things happen where citizens aren’t allowed to carry firearms. Dickhead that one.
probably waaay more than 3000 American servicepeople dead as a result of service in that Iraqi hellhole.
Why should the official casualty count from the military be the one thiing the Bush regime is not lying about?
Thank you TRex. Good night puppies. Love you all.
Reminds me of somebody who recently said that “the minimum daily requirement of bombings in the USA is ZERO!!“
the snark isn’t right tonight – thank you.
it was a weird day at school – word had gotten around the the teachers by lunchtime, but the kids didn’t know…
we were an upset lot…
I hope Malkin is enjoying the “Asian” identifier tonight.
My first thought when I heard the gunman was Chinese was “Uh oh, Japan’s in for it now!”
By the way, Guns don’t kill people, gun owners do.
Maybe Tommy Thompson will talk to a group of Asians and say “You people are really good at math and engineering. You know that’s sort of part of the Asian tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that.”
So is SJS (Sudden Jihad Syndrome) anything like PSS (Perpetual Stupidity Syndrome)?
PSS is evidenced by a complete lack of knowledge or awareness of anything remotely connected to reality. It seems to be most prevalent in those poor souls caught in “Ditto Head Land” and “The Noise Spin Zone” and enhanced by working within the confines of a geographical area known as the “Beltway.”
Mr. Sensitive-in-Chief wasted no time assuring his base that he would not allow their guns to be taken away. That is soooo much more important than a few dead students and faculty.
What a tragedy today in Virginia. Now divide 33 into 660,000 and see how many similar days America has given to Iraq.
it’s impossible to avoid, but i have no stomach for reviewing the events of the day.
just another avoidable disaster. what was campus secuirty thinking? i’m reminded of the workers who tried to leave the second trade tower but were told to go back to their desks, everything’s under controlled — so they died too.
Gnome de Plume @ 20
And speaking of dickheads…
Scarborough blamed these “incidences” on “Hollyweird”. What a moron.
TRex, is there even such a word as “incidences”?
From an ex-Wahoo to the Hokies…my deepest condolences.
I remember my days at UVa, I had a couple of pen pals down in Blacksburg, and we made fun of the blood-and-tears rivalry the two schools shared, in between the occasional bit of good-natured trash talking before big games between the schools.
They, like I, have long graduated and moved on, but I thought of them during today, and shed a quiet tear for all like them killed or traumatized by today’s events. :(
Fox Noise et al will interpret that thusly. Suicide bombers are more efficient than lone gunmen in Iraq. Why? More guns in Iraq. Bank on it
Yes! Yes Yes! I see it all NOW! I understand Malkin is Asian we can’t let her near guns she might start shooting. Malkin is Asian like the Japanese are! She should be sent to a concentration camp. Asians are dangerous they can’t be near guns. Malkin acts crazy because she is trying to warn us that she NEEDS to be locked up before she goes nuts with a gun. Can’t you see the signs are obvious “treat other people the way you wish to be treated” Malkin wants to be locked up and violated at Abu Graid! Come to think about it all the bushies seem to get a little excited about torture.
AZ Matt @ 11
Episodes like this have happened twice in the last twenty years in the UK, once at Henley, once at Dunblane. Guns were extremely tightly controlled before, now they are illegal. How many shooting rampages that have resulted in the deaths of five or more people have there been in the US, in the last twenty years?
SWS- Sudden Wingnut Syndrome- one day the righty blogger woke up and started spouting complete nonsense- their wingnut programming was fully functional! So, they are using their typical projection- they think other human beings are half as nutty as them, and if you were Pakistani and half as nutty as them you might get SJS too! Of course, isn’t that Sudden Jesus Syndrome, another right- wing plague?
Of course, none of the tighty-whitey-righties knows about the Tulsa massacres of blacks that took place from May 30 to June 1, 1921, in which 300 black people died.
That’s the sad truth, Trex. This would be a good day in Iraq if 33 died, and the right wing would screech that it was proof the surge was working.
Blech.
Riesz Fischer @ 24
Yupper, and the fact that guns are available in Cracker Jack boxes in the State of Virginia (I exaggerate but not by much) has absolutely nothing to do with it.
When this happens my first awareness is of my daughters and how much I love them, This is so horrible, and sadly, is no different than the anguish and despair I have as I read about it everyday happening in Iraq. Each and every time I see anyone in this administration talk about honor and finishing the job, staying the course, I see in my mind the real horror that ignorance and outright evil signifies.
Mabel’s Wig Shack @ 21
even worse: iraq had a population of roughly 28 million when the war began. so multiply roughly results of above equation roughly by 11 to get a sense fo the scale of what we have wrought.
I have said this repeatedly today:
I feel very bad for the 32 people killed in Virginia and for their families.
But you know what? In Philly, we’re losing a person a day, and it’s so bad that it barely makes the news.
Last thursday a guy was shot in the head directly across the street from my house: my housemate saw the whole thing. It made the “city/brief” blurb. Just another shooting. he’s number 113 for 2007.
so yeah, VT is a hideous crime, but as Larry johnson says, it’s not the norm here in the US. And in places where high homicide rates ARE the norm, the media generally ignores it.
Jon Stewart asked Andy Card if he had an RNC email account, and he said no. He also told Stewart that when Ken Lay tried to call W, he wouldn’t tell W Lay was calling. Deceptive person.
Phoenix Woman @ 30
They will refer to that as maintaining the pecking order.
If you are still alive, you are not debris – according to the Commander-in-Chief. What a sweetheart.
Tell me why,
I don’t like Mondays.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5tvQ_SrO8c
things come undone @ 27
My God, man, you’re a genius!
But there’s one problem: You’re being logically consistent. La Malkin uses her powers of Extreme Cognitive Dissonance to float magically away from her attackers, safe and serene in her near-virginal ignorance. Kinda like a Plus-7 Shield of Mighty Bullshit Emanation, or something like that.
I didn’t watch the news at all today but this is really sad. Is there any REAL news out there about what happened? What should I be reading?
TheOtherWA @
31
And Iraq has only 10% of the poplation we do.
Wow. I just got stuck in edit mode. Very very weird. I just hit refresh. Don’t know if this will work. All my good stuff gone the way of White House e-mails. :-(
PeteCO @ 28
Israel lets everybody, well the Jewish people at least have guns and everyone there gets Army training to use those guns. Yet despite the guns people worry all the time about suicde bombers and rocket attacks crime hasn’t gone down the violent impluse is just redirected at the Palestinians and Arabs. Never mind the reported crimes the underreported war crimes makes Israel a very violent place.
Lots of people are unstable and under pressure, and when one of them (one of us) snaps, the idiots have to blame something so they can get some mileage from the tragedy. It’s so sad; then it seems to get sadder still. Damn.
My wife had a dilemma with a student last semester. He was an Iraq war vet, Army, in her college communications class. He wasn’t completing assignments according to her directions and wanted to talk with her about it. From the way he was talking in class and in his papers, from his stress level and the anger he sometimes suddenly displayed, she was a bit scared. He was unable to talk about himself, even in a written description of dyadic communications—he had to make up a fictional account of two people communicating. She was able to work with him and find a middle ground that fulfilled the class requirements and respected his evident, but unspoken, PTSD…but he didn’t have a counselor from the VA or at the college.
When I heard about the VT shootings today I flashed on this kid at my wife’s college. I’m afraid of the issues we will have to face in our society over the next decade.
SnarKassandra @ 41
I think you need to wait until sometime tomorrow when the police can say with more certainty as to what happened. There was much confusion today.
I live in Texas where you can carry guns around. There are a lot of colleges here but I don’t think that the students are bringing guns to class there. I think it is mostly in other places. Anyone know for sure?
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 47
More guns = More Death
The national conversation really needs to be about the cost of liberal handgun and assault rifle ownership in America.
dmg @ 34: good point.
———
And now for something completely stupid.
Debbie Does the VTech Shooting.
oddball @ 48
liberal=progressive??? or liberal=lots
Folks in Blacksburg have experienced sudden and violent death, in numbers that echo the picture in Baghdad. There are some big difference, though. Those in Baghdad know they are living in the midst of a war zone, while my sister-in-law who teaches at Va Tech did not think she did. And tomorrow, people in Blacksburg will be able to come out on the streets, gather and mourn publicly, and not fear that their gathering will be disrupted by more gunfire.
In Baghdad . . . tomorrow will likely be similar to today and yesterday and the day before that. That’s a big, big difference.
* * *
For the latest in local news from southwest Virginia, here’s the Roanoke Times.
And my SIL is fine.
Gnome de Plume @ 43
Extra helping of mashed potatoes. And I’ve been trying to be a good girl and eat properly, but sometimes you just need a little comfort food, especially on days like today.
OT-I just got a call from a political survey for my city (San Diego) asking a number of hypothetical questions for the ‘08 ballot. One question was how I would vote were our current city attorney to run against Carol Lam.
Phoenix Woman @ 40
Malkin suffers from Cognitive Dissonance because she has almost convinced herself that both SHE is WHITE, and that WHITES accept her and her kids. Just wait till her kids become teenagers and tell her the neighbors laugh at her and that she has NEVER BEEN ACCEPTED!
scarlet p. @
17
So instead of getting rid of the guns, we should get rid of the gun owners ? Something’s not right in there somewhere …
Mabel’s Wig Shack @ 49
aw, shucks. it came out sideways, but at least you know what i meant.
deGastignan @ 55
We own guns. My brother is in the military and he taught me and my cousin to shoot last summer.
Gnome de Plume @
43
I was on a couple of earlier posts, trying (unsuccessfully) to inject a bit of humor, to lighten the gloom being expressed at the developing tragedy. I could feel Christy’s anger/despair/helplessness as if she were sitting next to me. I finally gave up and went into meditation – deep silence – for a couple of hours. Then I played with my kids and watched the hockey game. None of this can minimize the tragedy that took place at VT, but it gave me the balance that is needed to face tomorrow with the optimism that even from this, some good can come.
liberal as in lots.
I don’t know too many progressives who advocate ‘liberal’ gun ownership.
Gnome de Plume @ 43
We’ve been hearing oblique references (and there are probably direct references on VA wingnut blogs, but I don’t read those) to this proposed law, which fortunately did not pass the Virginia Legislature this year: “HB 2300 Firearms; prohibits state entities or institutions of higher education from adopting regulations.”
Hey TRex, can you give us some recommendations for sad music? I just got back from the Russian hotel breakfast where they played some very sorrowful stuff, part of their national character, and it was strangely therapeutic.
Maybe ET will come by later for more.
Wow. First Deb breathlessly reports the shooter was a “Paki”, then he’s probably muslim, then he’s a professional shooter and that VTU is a gun-free campus (see what that’ll get ya?!), and finally he’s a Chinese FOREIGNER!
Makes your head spin, doesn’t it?
egregious @ 61
in times like this, i prefer music for reflection, rather than out and out mourning.
and keith jarrett solo piano always does the trick. in fact, i have koln concert on right now.
things come undone @ 54
A-yep.
“In the last few hours, all I have really been able to concentrate on is praying that my God will find a way to rain mercy and comfort down on the families of those afflicted.”
“my God”
Thank you for this modesty.
Phoenix Woman @ 64
Accept she makes money…so nothing else matters.
egregious @ 61
Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Get the version with Dawn Upshaw singing with the London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Zinman.
marksb @ 62
God, that woman is so stupid, she makes Malkin look bright.
Which comes first:
infatuation with eliminationist technology?
or
infatuation with eliminationist rhetoric?
“PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: School should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community.”
But only American. If you are Iraqi, you’re out of luck. You had relative safety and sancturary in your schools under Saddam, but that was then. This is now.
I wonder if we in America knew that there was a next life and that we would suffer role reversal, come back as Iraqi and they would come back as Americans, just how hot on this invasion and occupation etc. we would be. Just wondering.
marksb @ 62
This is her reply to someone who corrected her on one point:
Pakis are considered “Asian.”
I believe the correct term is “Pakistani”.
YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED. EITHER TERM IS CORRECT. WHAT IS THIS–THE IMUS THOUGHT POLICE?
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL
She is a WHACKO SICKO!
TRex @ 50
egads: from the fembots fan club section:
Attorney, Columnist, and Hip, Conservative Info-Babe Commentator, Debbie Schlussel is the VRWC’s latest and greatest sexy, blonde, and beautiful commentator.
Has anybody else ever gotten stuck in “edit your comment” mode? Every time I tried to post a comment, I was actually editing my post at 43! I had to reload the whole website to get out of it. Refresh comments didn’t do it. If you try to find my first two posts I will claim executive privilege on you. ;>)
Phoenix Woman @
30
I Salute You Ma’am.
And each death most likely had a penny postcard with ghastly and VIVID scenes created to show the other villages and towns and relatives how this ‘problem’ is to be dealt with.
God DAMN this country for its horrible ways at times.
‘Screw the thorn, I’m huntin bigots.’
-The Lion
Evening all, on this sad, sad evening.
Gnome de Plume @
73
That glitch popped up last time there was a server update. Tech support, yoohoo, Jamie?
Suzanne @ 75
Good evening Suzanne.
BTW, the gelato was yummy. I feel much better now, thanks, and so does the lucky dog who beat the others to licking the bowl.
Gnome de Plume @ 73
Yep!
With firefox on Mac OSX, clearing the browser cache sometimes helped…
And sometimes not.
To be sure, I’ve had to close and then re-open Firefox.
YMMV :)
Cassie, where in Texas are you? I think I remember you or Aunt Betsy saying you were in the DFW area?
Oilfieldguy @ 72
I just looked at that site. Who is she?
Gnome de Plume @ 80
South of DFW. South of Waco. North of Austin.
Gnome de Plume, that has happened to others also – tech support has been notified. Refresh comments button does not refresh the page – only the comments that you have not gotten yet. As far as I know, refreshing the entire page is what works to fix that little glitch :)
Debbie’s an attorney? Regent University, perhaps? Without all that troublesome bible reading, evidently…
brendancalling @
35
I’d like to see some stats on dead people as a result of urban ‘challenges’ over the past 20 years . . . nationally?
I’d guess, hundreds of thousands, annually. We’ve been at war, domestically, since Ronnie Raygun intro’d crack coke to Freeway Ricky.
Ok, the war started LONG before that, the biker gangs and the meth trade is what brought down the Summer Of Love.
So.
As the esteemed Hispanic is wont to wax.
So.
Watch bush and his puppet Joe Scarbrough do the Yoga of Logic tommorrow and twist poor logic into a painful pretzel. They will both blame Holllywood for lowering Americas Morals and causing the shootings. Then they will neglect to mention all the Hollywood films that promte gun violence. Later on the President will tell the NRA that as long as he’s president nobody will take their guns away. Even though the presidents base according to the pew poll is the least informed bunch out there, and given the violent comments right wingers make about calling for the death of Liberals, Muslims, Blacks,Hispanics, Jews etc the president’s base is the one group the rest of America can agree upon SHOULD NOT HAVE GUNS!
Gnome de Plume.
My computer is a beat-o-matic 4000. No problem can’t be solved without a few thumps to the vitals.
No self-respecting Oilfieldguy would be caught with anything less.
Is your machine French?
oddball @ 39
Many know the song. Few know what it is about.
Another senseless Monday…
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 82
Aahh, then you are not too far from the Near SA bunch of us who seem to yak regularly. Perhaps you, Aunt Betsy, your brother, cousins, et al would come join us for the Gospel Brunch at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels the second Sunday in July? I will post a reminder close to the day and figure out a sneaky way to identify each other.
She’s a wanna-be. She wants to be like Malkin and Coulter, but she’s even less intelligent than they are. In fact, she’s got about the same IQ as a plate of sardines. Old sardines.
And I feel fairly certain that this:
Was probably written by the Lady herself.
Oilfieldguy @ 87
OK, I’ll bite – what is the punch line if I say it is French? (I love the beat-omatic 4000 – sounds like something from Harry Potter.)
TRex @ 90
I would hate to be known as an info-babe.
Why, if she were President, she would be Babe-Raham Lincoln! Sez so right on her page. Ripped that lameass line right off of Waynes World.
TRex, what was that about not getting snarky? Wow, didn’t think you would get me to smile about the Right wing noise machine tonight, butcha did…thanks.
Bonkers, I’d forgotten that song. And it is Monday. Yikes.
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 57
I don’t mean to offend any gun owners or anything. I just think the statement that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is ludicrous and I need to make fun of it where it pops up.
egregious,
Here’s something maybe you will like. It’s a very old Christmas carol in a minor key, The Coventry Carol (I think).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIanCD3La2w
Gnome de Plume @ 90
that’s the nimbus 2000.
hey OFG – are you on the road again?
TRex,
Running the risk of wrath by offering a wee correction to a mighty thunder lizard, it is important to note the word “lady” is an opinion, while “female” is a statement of fact.
Yes, that would be it. Does it work better for editing comments than a Dell Inspiron 8600, I wonder?
larue @ 74
Huffington Post has this headline: Deadliest Shooting In U.S. History . Is that accurate?
Gnome de Plume @ 101
Only when there’s a snitch in the room and you’re riding a broom.
OFG, the word Inspiron does sound French. Punaise we need help here.
I have never understood the gun culture in the US. The statistics are horrible, something like 10,000 deaths a year, of which close enough to zero percent are the NRA fantasy of the homeowner blowing away the big bad murderer/robber/rapist. Too many victims are friends and family of the gun owner.
The UK, Canada and Australia seem to get along without everybody being armed to the teeth.
It’s about time we grew up, and no the Second Amendment does not say everybody has a right to a gun.
Suzanne,
No, I’m home right now. Hit the road in the morn.
Gnome de Plume @ 100
well, it probably makes you write FASTER.
Since apparently the world can’t exist without advertising, we get things like this happening in our new “google ad age.”
I clicked on some site like CBS or some other Conglomerate Media site, can’t remember, to see if there are any updates on Virginia Tech. Right next to the article which is describing the shooting in detail, is a large Flash animated logo for Publishers Clearing House, where you control a shotgun and shoot at birds or something as they fly up. So this animation is playing automatically while I’m trying to read the artcle. Freakin crazy…
Margot @ 96
Yup. Sang it with a wonderful choir a few years back. Nice tenor part. Sad, sad song.
Lyrics:
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
Bye-bye, lulloo, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
Bye-bye, lulloo, lullay.
O sisters, too, how may we do
For to preserve this day?
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
Bye-bye, lulloo, lullay.
Herod the king in his raging
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young to slay.
Then woe is me, poor Child for Thee,
And ever morn and day,
For Thy parting nor say nor sing,
By-bye, lulloo, llullay.
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 102
It could be true if you are refering to one individual being responsible.
Gnome de Plume,
That was my attempt at immitation rightardeness (Is that a werd?) If you take up arms at a French computer, well…
bonkers @ 107
that’s scary.
i got the one where we play dick cheney and dtry to shoot a friend in the face.
Oilfieldguy @ 111
Does France make computers?
Somebody snapped, that’s all. A bunch of people are dead, and their families left with an aching hole. Everyone is looking for something to blame, and everyone’s looking for something to not blame.
Was is guns? No. A lot of people have guns and don’t kill people with them. So by itself, no, it’s not the guns.
Was it Hollywood and violent movies? Same argument as above. So, no, not Hollywood.
Was it videogames? Again, same argument.
Was it possibly (I know I’ll sound racist here, sorry…) the pressure to succeed that particularly Asian-Americans have to deal with? Not likely…not even Michelle Malkin has actually gone out and killed a bunch of people, as far as we know.
Is it George Bush’s fault? You know, Mr. Bring-em-on? This time, probably not. This doesn’t fit his shiny object description.
It’s a puzzle. Literally. We will never know what was going on in the shooter’s head, what one thing was just too much. We can bury the dead, and grieve with the families, and we should not politicize their losses to push either wing’s agendas. To do so is to cheapen their loss, reduce it to a talking point, and a life is so much more than that. The families have my shared grief with theirs. Not enough, but all I have to give to them.
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 113
Didn’t France make the Oui?
-GSD
Mommybrain @
76
Hey, mommybrain. I did the frappr map thing – you’re my neighbor, by LA standards…
Oilfieldguy @ 111
The General would be proud. At least you held my attention while waiting for the finale (another French word, BTW)or coup de grace, or . . . you get the picture.
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 112
They started to but got discouraged and gave up. (Oh you guys are killin’ me)
Please note that FDL does not condone or encourage these types of comments. I am being silly and will refrain in the future from taking this type of track.
OFG, don’t worry, not even Dell MAKES computers. They import the parts from China or whoever can make them the cheapest and assemble the pieces into the Beat-o-matic or whatever computer you order from them
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04…..gency.html
Watch tomarrow folks as the president exploits the victims of gun violence and defends the rights of gun owners AT THE SAME TIME by claiming this tragedy would never have happened if EVERYBODY had a gun. Then watch him accuse LIBERALS of exploiting the tragedy by calling for greater gun control. Yes folks its the Yoga of Logic learn to twist the truth in a pretzel just like the Advertising Agencies do. PR is perhaps the one thing the bush WH does do well. Gobbels would be so proud of kkkarl!
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @
47
Well, don’t know about colleges, but wasn’t it Warren Chisum who introduced a bill in the state legislature to mandate that gun owners had the right to bring guns to church?
things come undone @ 121
It scares me that you can make these predictions. Cause I know you are going to be right.
This is unbelievable..
http://www.vgoc.org/
The mourning hasn’t even started for the tragedy at VA Tech and the rethug gun extremists are already exploiting it.
http://www.vgoc.org/ is saying on their website and in press quotes being picked up by utterly irresponsible journalists here and there that the whole thing could’ve been prevented if only VA had passed their campus concealed carry law (presumably so that the students could’ve shot back and VA Tech could really become Baghdad). These people are utterly unbelievable.
There. I learned how to edit and not re-edit myself.
montag @ 122
Yep! And you can, unless that particular church has a sign at the door that says no.
things come undone @ 120
Why wait until tomorrow? His little yappy spokesliar, Dana cappucino Perino already stated in todays presser that the President supports the right to bear arms, while the bodies were still warm.
Shadowstalker @ 113
it’s not the guns themselves, but it’s no puzzle either. it’s the proximity of the guns to people who shouldn’t have dangerous weapons close at hand.
as long as we are content to have guns readily available, we should just pencil in a certain number of these events. that there haven’t been more is the true mystery. but i fear they will become more common. a nation that endorses torture and a foreign policy of violence as a first option should not be surprised when that attitude leaches its way into the domestic culture.
Now that would be a problem. I would personally be responsible for quite a few ministerial demises during sermons if that law ever passed. (But not Peterr or Rev Deb of course.)
George, a man of his word.
From the NYT Editorial:
LINK
Seineman @ 70
This from the president who thinks of fraternity hazing as the good old days. What a hypocritical motherfucker.
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 123
Its easy evil is predictable. St Auguestine I believe thought that God was knowledge, logic etc evil if you follow that train of thought is illogical and stupid! plus unimaginative so its predictable, that plus Karl has done this before lots of times.
Wait! It is a law? Good thing I don’t go to church very much. (Only for funerals and weddings and I don’t have holsters to match the outfit, usually.)
I don’t like guns much myself.
TRex @
50
Crap, I almost signed in and POSTED to her about racist baiting hate speech.
Now I need to wipe, AND take a shower.
Geez, that’s some seroiusly ugly crap she schluschessssssssss . . . .
Gnome de Plume @ 133
My friend Rachel’s dad is in security stuff and he carries a gun EVERYwhere. He brings it when he has lunch with his kindergarten kid at school and I bet he brings it to church too if he goes there.
This is out of WaPo coverage:
snip
snip
I only got this far; have’t finished reading the whole article yet. But. This is weird.
—–
LS- I don’t do the NYT. Is that link about the shooting(s)?
Oilfieldguy @ 127
Shouldn’t you wait 24 hours before you exploit the dead, now I’m scared and disgusted
Good night all. Hope tomorrow is better.
All hail the Hazer in Chief.
Apparently Bush is going to Virginia Tech. I’ll skip the snark, because no one affected by todays events need suffer it, but is his thought that he’s found his Oklahoma City moment? In ‘94, Gingrich had just called Clinton pretty much irrelevant, and then the Murrah building was bombed, and people remembered that there was a President after all.
Of course, the gap in empathy reserves between Bush and the Clenis makes the Grand Canyon seem like a crack in the sidewalk…
AZ Matt @ 71
“Either term is correct?” Not according to this.
You’re right, TRex. The Debster is so umbelievably stupid that she doesn’t even know she’s a fucking racist. But kudos to her for knowing British slurs instead of just the regular old American ones.
Shadowstalker @ 114
That is probably the truth in a nutshell. Unfortunately, there will always be those that will want to use tragedies like this as a platform for their own agendas. Perhaps that is the only way of making sense, of something this inexplicable. It’s in human nature to find answers to phenomena, be they scientific or supernatural. It gives us the illusion we can somehow maintain control of our environment.
In the following days and weeks we’ll learn more about this tragedy; what caused this person to give in to his demons and why the campus police and other authorities made the choices they did. Until then we can only pray the families of the dead, as well as the wounded, can find peace and comfort somehow.
EvilDrPuma @
131
You know, I thought of the same thing when he was saying that.
Branding with a red-hot coat-hanger, anyone?
Gnome de Plume @ 129
Well, just wait until they pass a shoot-when-threatened law. Then you can go after fundy preachers with impunity–”but, your Honor, that man said I wuz goin’ to Hell!”
/snark/off
Anyone think that the shrub will attend a VA Tech funeral? For political gain. To keep the light on this tragedy and off his incompetence.
Bet he goes – when he has never gone to a fallen soldier’s funeral caused by george’s war.
Mutant Poodle @ 141
Is he going to have the ROTC around as props?
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 139
Good Night Snarky (who will be Kassandra again tomorrow)
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 47
dmg @ 128
I don’t know, when I channel surf, which can happen at primetime, every few seconds a weapon is pointed at me out of the TV; dead bodies from ABC to CBS and everything in between, what with this new fad of showing forensics as detailed as possible. Here even, “you guys are killing me”, and the lady selling rings for the shopping network: “this a killer piece”. Violence is the shadow of the American fun culture; it is deep in the psyche. Shooting millions of buffalo from moving trains, for fun…some of it is still there, in the unconscious – deep down, or not so deep down, where violence is something acceptable. Even a military uniform, how violent that is, you don’t expect a human being in it.
dmg@128
By itself, it was not the guns. I have a gun…it’s one of those Dirty Harry Magnums…and have yet to kill even one person with it. (haven’t even wounded anyone, either!)
I also watch Chuck Norris movies and play computer games, and I still haven’t offed anybody.
It’s possible that some combination of the above, plus the general prevailing “life isn’t as important as money” culture floating about, was what made this poor soul snap. I’m not psychic, and I don’t know. That’s all I was saying.
Mutant Poodle @ 141
That, just after the posting on the a**hat not waiving payments by Katrina victims? I may barf up my gelato. I wonder if he can even speak to the school without a smirk on his face? January 20, 2009 cannot come soon enough.
My God. That Debbie Schlussel is unreal.
“Even if it does not turn out that the shooter is Muslim, this is a demonstration to Muslim jihadists all over that it is extremely easy to shoot and kill multiple American college students.”
Posted by Debbie at April 16, 2007 02:57 PM
Even it it wasn’t a Muslim, they are still responsible.
Words cannot express. That logic is indescribable.
-GSD
Okay, gang. We’re going to do a Late Late Nite post called “Firedoglake Predicts!”
Tell me everything you envision for tomorrow’s press conference. So far we have:
1. Slow-jacking the NRA.
2. ROTC as props.
I would like to go out on a limb here and predict at LEAST one comparison of Blacksburg to 9/11.
What I really want to know is, what will it take for this country to have a serious national roundtable discussion about what we’ve become and how to fix it… when pundits are seriously talking in the national media about the need for students to take guns to class to protect themselves against other students, we either need a new national media or, more likely, a national conscience check. I’m deeply saddened.
Oh, she’s been accepted. REAL accepted.
As an ugly, mean, evil and hateful and bigoted human. What kinda mom wants THAT for her kids legacy to deal with?
Her kids are scarred, will be scarred further, and will one day, slaughter people in their singlemindedness retribution for what their mother created for them.
Sad.
Evil begets evil. It’s how the KKK and that confed flag still fly and exist.
Sometimes, I think we shoulda eliminated them all, but then, that’s what THEY do.
So, it’s eternal vigilance, in exchange of peace of heart I guess . . . damn if that ain’t always an easy path to take for THIS Larue . . . harumph.
TRex,
I keep checking Malkin’s site to see if she’ll blast the lamestream media for not reporting that just last week several of the administration buildings at VA Tech got fresh new coats of paint. Damn defeatocrats don’t realize that the only way we, a society knee deep in guns, can win the war on psychos with guns going on rampages is to get hip deep in guns.
TRex, don’t forget George’s solution to everything – “Laura and I have been praying”.
Blub @ 147
Oooh! Hope not!
Hi all.
WaPo Editorial:
LINKYPOO
TRex @ 154
Oh, I honestly hope not. Even he can’t stoop that low, can he?
Blub @ 155
As I said earlier today, we have a surfeit of guns, testosterone and anger in this country. One or more of `em has to give if we want to avoid repeats of past events.
We could start by only allowing the sale of muzzle loaders to the public.
Shadowstalker @ 114
To me, declaring that any attempt to change the law so that this doesn’t happen again is “pushing an agenda” is the definition of cheapening their loss. The law exists to protect life, limb, and property; trying to figure out why it failed and fix it is not playing politics. We don’t know what goes on in the heads of many murderers, but that doesn’t mean the only response is to throw up our hands and declare that nothing should be done.
TRex, in addtion the the ROTC guys, he will have bald men in uniforms around (such as police and firemen)
TRex @ 153
Americans have the right to own guns.
Shadowstalker @ 150
i don’t think i was disagreeing, at least not about the guns.
my point is, when people are in a rage, it’s best if they don’t have access to weapons. that’s why the first thing police ask when called to a “domestic situation” is “are there any guns in the house?”
that this nation has nurtured, nay, encouraged, a gun worship of sorts by definition means it will always be afflicted by murders that need not occur.
this trade-off is fine by most politicians. maybe by most citizens. but we shouldn’t act so shocked when an event like today happens. as i said, it’s a mystery that it doesn’t happen more.
by the way, thursday is the anniversary of oklahoma city.
Blub @ 160
Yes, he can. And he will. You are burdened here by your own conviction that there is a moral boundary that one should not cross for purposes of political self-promotion. Bush has long since shown that he possesses no such belief.
Some good news for us:
That is a very impressive number. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is at 53% approval in the WaPo/ABC poll. That’s even a decent number for a president. But the Speakership is an inherently partisan position — a post far easier to villify than to mobilize around. By way of contrast, Newt Gingrich maxed out at 41% approval and spent most of his time in the thirties.
– Josh Marshall
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..41607.html
So now we know why the ugly R’s are trying to beat up on our Madam Speaker.
Kristine @
53
Lindt excellent Madagascar 65% cocoa – mild dark – extra fine DARK chocolate big bar……
larue @ 155
Dinesh d’Souza’s the same, isn’t he? And don’t forget real winners like Ward Connelly in CA? And, of course, the Great Abu-General (g=h) himself. There’s no shortage of self-haters out there.. I take them at their word. It’s nothing to do with acceptance or self deception. They’re just ugly human beings. Color isn’t the issue here.
Blub @ 160
of course he can.
the question is whether he will.
my money’s on him.
Suzanne @ 163
Captain Picard? I’m pretty sure he’d have nothing to do with Bush.
Blub @ 160
He will want the NSA to spy on everyone now.
Hi Aunt Betsy! I invited Cassie and the whole lot of you down to New Braunfels for the Gospel Brunch at Gruene Hall in July. The San Antonio Area Fire Pup Brigade is going to try to get together then. (All three of us.) Afterwards you can go to Schlitterbahn or tube down one of our rivers.
TRex @ 154
Don’t forget that April 15, 2007 was the day America Lost Her Innocence (TM).
And I’ve been Re-Virginized (TM).
TRex @ 152
Inappropriate groping of a grieving mother.
Gnome de Plume @ 173
What is a Gospel brunch? Otherwise sounds good. (I use a wheelchair and would need help getting to the tube, but I can tube.)
AZ Matt @ 172
And that differs from the current situation in what respect…?
Patrick 4/4 @ 175
One can have that done at the dry cleaners, I hear….
How may women commit crimes like this? How many women start wars? Instead of getting rid of guns, perhaps we should just get rid of men. :)
Blub @
160
He’ll put on his “uniter” cloak and it will be his 9/14 speech, “I can hear you”, redux.
TRex, he will make some stupid remark about “we are all Virginians” and make the assumption that all Virginians pray to his god.
montag @ 179
It’s extra, like leather cleaning.
TexasBetsy @ 179
Now, we’re not all bad. (But there are days when I agree with your sentiment anyway.)
EvilDrPuma @ 177
OK, he will want the NSA to spy everyone even more than now.
TexasBetsy @ 179
…leaving us with Coultergeist, MalKKKin and, of course, PammyShrugs!
Blub @ 185
and condi…you wouldn’t want to forget her.
TexasBetsy @ 164
Handguns, hunting rifles yes. Simple things for defense and possible offense if used correctly. But i draw the line at assault rifles. Those things are nothing but war toys and made to kill people by the score.
I don’t own guns myself, and i have no taste for them. But i wont’ begrudge people the non asault weapons, becuase most end up trained in how to use them correctly.
I just can’t imagine life with a gun in my house or apartment. Mostly because that’s how i grew up. *shrugs*
TexasBetsy @ 180
I think that might make it a bit difficult to keep the population up, would hurt the economy.
What if we only allowed the sale of squirt guns to kids, and none to adults?
Blub @ 185
Oh dear. Hadn’t considered that. Hmmm. But …. no Rove or Cheney or Rumsfeld.
dmg @ 186
Sorry, that’s the wrong answer! But you’ll be taking home some lovely parting gifts…
egregious @
61
‘Janis’ by Country Joe.
‘Age’ by Jim Croce, done by Bluegrass Album Band, sung by Tony Rice
The Boatman, sung by John Duffy (inspirational as it is sorrowful)
‘If You Could Read My Mind’, Gordon.
Just some more contemporary NON electric thoughts on the topic at hand.
TexasBetsy @ 178
I have to say how surprised I am that comment took this long to appear…)
EvilDrPuma @ 184
Y’know, there have been days when I have wondered since we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we put them all there? ;-}
Blub @ 185
Debbie Schlussel too.
You might have a rifle if you lived in an area where coyotes threatened your animals.
egregious @
61
Ok, Pacelbel (sp) Canon In D Minor.
Vivaldi-Four Seasons
So.
Eureka Springs @ 192
That’s just because I had to finish my taxes!
Eureka Springs @ 192
maggie thatcher did her fair share.
Gospel Brunch with a Texas Twist is the second Sunday of each month. Dakine brought it to my attention. Country-Gospel is the music fare. The food is catered by the Grist Mill – the restaurant next door. I have not attended one of these brunches, but I will find out more since this is in my own backyard.
AZ Matt @ 172
Is there anyone left they aren’t spying on?
waving my wings…night all.
keith jarrett and morpheus awaits.
dmg @ 199
Umm, yeah, forgot her. (She’s eminently forgettable, anyway.)
TexasBetsy @ 179
I, for one, welcome our female overlords! ;-)
(Paraphrasing the Simpsons’ Kent Brockman, of course.)
What I think we should do, honestly, is to somehow restore value to life, but that involves changing nearly every aspect of our culture, and is a long-term project. Besides trying to emphasize respect for life personally to my daughter (and soon, my granddaughter!), I wouldn’t know how to begin.
Someone mentioned Captain Picard, and now I keep hearing him say “How many does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong?”
larue @ 192
Paul Simon, American Tune.
TexasBetsy @ 195
Exactly! That’s a practical need for it. I never had that need, nor did my family. So we never had one. My dad was Air Force, he had some training with weapons. But he never owned a gun outside of it. We just don’t need it. So we don’t have them.
My prediction.
Never once in his six year reign in error, has he ever appeared Presidential. Even after 9/11, when he grabbed the bullhorn at ground zero, all I saw was this.
I will neither be surprised or disappointed tommorow. Like 9/11 and Katrina, he has ample opportunity to rise to the occasion, and merely creates photo ops.
G’nite pups.
Thanks, TRex — the Iraq comparison was what I thought of all day as well. Iraqis live with this kind of terror daily, to our eternal shame.
(Nice first-person terror email pr0n at MM’s, by the way. Nothing like tales of bloodtrails and shell casings to get the cheeto brigade’s little soldiers saluting La Malkin. Jeez, those people are sick.)
Hope everyone holds a loved one a little tighter tonight, and that we all send healing energy Blacksburg’s way.
========
Had Enough?
========
dmg @ 199
Yep.
driveby comments before sleepytime
trex – spot on!
there is a certain national arrogance that tragedies on US soil are somehow different than those that are so common elsewhere
all losses are local, but we are diminished as humans when we deny the importance of others’ losses
egregious – portugese fado is my feelgood sad music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fado
I will make this prediction. The announcement for the verdict in the Jose Padilla trial will be timed to run interference on bad news about Alberto Gonzales.
They have just announced that his trial has begun.
-GSD
P.S. The Pentagon has announced that they have slowed down on equipment repairs because they are afraid Congress won’t have money for them.
Too many goodbyes for one small heart…
TRex @
153
It’s all due to:
* Violent video games.
* Capital punishment
* The availability of assault rifles
* Violence in the movies
* Secular humanism
* The prevalence of sodomy.
TexasBetsy @
179
Evenin’ Aunt Betsy. Earlier in the day, I mentioned Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, where he shows that Canadians have more guns per capita than Americans and a pittance of gun- related crimes, relative to our neighbors to the South.
Even the French have far less gun crimes, but that’s probably because they’re too lazy to even pull a trigger, never mind build a com-pew-terr … *g*
There is something wrong with the culture when rich, steroid-filled men weep because they finished second best in a contest for the Super Bowl and are mocked countrywide for being “the biggest losers”.
Shadowstalker @ 204
That was me, and I quote that line often. (I know a lot of people hate that movie. Me, I thought it was just fine up to the last half-hour where it suddenly decided to try to turn a seventy-year-old character into Bruce Willis in “Die Hard.”)
Good column
Robinson column
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @ 102
Nope.
[see above. Please substitute “Indian Island” for “Island”, and “whites” for “townsmen”.]
from: Our Home Forever: The Hupa Indians of Northern California. Bryan Nelson, Jr. Hupa Tribe, Hoopa CA, 1994 paper (above p 72-73.)
Wigwam @ 214
And here I thought it was just nuts with guns….
Petrocelli @ 215
Umm, wasn’t that “Bowling for Columbine?”
GSD @ 211
Let’s hope Congress finds the email from Rove to the requisite Pentagon logistics command ordering them to slow down repairs… oh, woops… it’ll be among the 5 million ….
montag @
218
Well I saw the french version and it clearly said, “Fahrenheit 9/11″ … and zee french are neverrr wrong *g*
Virginia Tech will be a well staged photo-op for Bush. He is very good at that kind of thing, 9/11 rubble, aircraft carrier, New Orleans, this will be just another one. No doubt Rove has it all figured out for him.
Blub @ 160
Oh, he can. And he will.
TeddySanFran @ 208
Hey, Teddy. I saw you got the Atrios link…
You need to be a front-pager more often. Like, every day.
GSD @ 212
What utter bullshit. Congress has been giving the Pentagon everything it has asked for and more for all of the last several years. They got almost $20 billion for re-equipping last year. They could give up one small part of Rummy’s insane plans and pay for any additional repairs required.
There’s just two issues here–they’re out of contractors to do the repairs, or they haven’t bothered to cycle out all the junk that’s accumulated in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, money isn’t the issue and these people know it.
AZ Matt @ 222
Oh that worked out real well for him… I think what he says tomorrow will be determined in part by which way the wind’s blowing by them. There’s already a lot of press blowback about the VA and college authorities not responding appropriately… he’ll have to cognizant of that unless he wants the grieving mothers coming after him too… as happened with both 9/11 and NOLA
TRex, he won’t mention it (yet but someone will eventually) but they will be looking for a post-shooting bounce in the polls.
Time for this Gnome to go nighty night. TRex, I will check out your predictions in the morning.
GdP
TRex @ 223
Ding!
Gnome de Plume @ 43
Dangit, I have that exact tub of gelato in my freezer right now!
Wonder how much is left…
Come on, guys, predictions.
montag @ 224
No, no. This is even more sinister. Much of the repair is done BY the army or the Nat’l Guard. But they’ve been denying them the proper parts and equipment for 2 years yet and actually seem to prefer calling vehicles totaled and then buying new ones from a contractor. Or so it seems.
TRex @ 153
3. Using Laura as a prop (as he said today, something to the effect of “Laura and I deeply regret…” whatever.
What does Laura have to do with it? Does he think we are more likely to think he is sincere if he drags his wife into it?
Yeah- New Orleans and the aircraft carrier worked out GREAT for Clusterfuck- no wonder he gave Karl such a big raise!!!
TRex @ 231
Crocodile tears.
Several expressions about God’s will and the preciousness of human life.
if he really fucks up trying to ad lib, maybe a gaffe about bringing the perpetrator to justice.
Mention of how important his own children are to him.
He will say “I” many, many times.
TRex @ 230
Predicitions on what will happen tomorrow? Sorry dear TRex – don’t make me scroll up -predictions about what was it you asked?
Never mind – got it!
TRex @ 231
Anybody know where are Jenna and non-Jenna? They’d make good sympathy props given the collegiate audience.
Sen. Byrd from the HuffPo:
Laura deeply regrets MANY things
Prediction: moment of silence
good lighting and background – think New Orleans
Laurabot wears black and Bush’s tie is yellow
he will refer to meeting with the families of those killed in his wars just as he has met with a named family of someone killed in va and mention crying and praying and say the word “hard”
Tell you what I’d like to see – Bush and Abdullah doing that “King & I” dance that Yul Brynner indelibly etched into my mind.
montag @
225
Spin.
The Pentagon salutes Rove.
“Give the Prez his bill or the troops don’t get their Humvees armored”.
Patrick 4/4 @ 205
egregious @ 61
Paul Simon, American Tune.
Amen, and thank you Patrick 4/4. That’s one of Simon’s best. Melody by Bach, if I remember correctly.
And now I’m signing off. Tomorrow’s going to be another working day….
TRex @ 230
We will have fight them here if we don’t fight them overthere.
Here’s what I have so far.
he will acuse “some” of wanting to politicize this tragedy (meaning dems)
From shrub, it’ll moore like:
“We will have fight them here if we don’t fight them everywhere.”
TRex @ 230
Oh, I’ll shoot for the obvious. Bush will be in Blacksburg for a grand total of two hours, but the faculty and student body will be harassed by his security goons for at least two hours before and after.
He’ll spend most of his time doing staged shots at the scenes of the shootings, which his goons will make possible by disrupting the lives of everybody who had their lives so hideously disrupted today.
Naturally, he will invoke 9/11…most likely to compare the way “Murkins came together when confronted with terrible evil.”
He will use the words “evil” or “evildoer” repeatedly, and he will smirk when he says them.
Everybody involved will hate him for his ham-handed self-promotion and his security apparatus, but the media will only show the staged footage.
TexasBetsy @ 232
Umm, from what I’ve read, a lot of the major work was contracted out by various armories. (There are contractors working on repairs.) But, I don’t doubt that such is part of the strategy. Even so, there’s money for it. Know how many humvees you can buy for $20 billion?
125,000.
yo no tengo nada. simply saddened and emptied by this kind of tragedy.
TRex @ 230
God has a plan for all of us.
We are grieving over here so we don’t have to think about grieving over there.
He will also speek with his mouth full.
Will ignore his wife.
Will double his dose a valium.
Will nudge someone out of the best camera angle.
Will make fun of the wrong person at the wrong time. (this could happen several times)
Will leave as soon as humanly possible.
Just heard an interesting take on this.
What if it had been a terrorist attack?
How did the univ respond? How did the local and state authorities? Were there emergency or homeland security plans? Why couldn’t they have an effective lockdown? Why aren’t we any more prepared than on 9-11?
Great Toles cartoon: Tom Toles cartoon
montag @ 248
My nephew is a national guard mechanic and things sound frustrating to say the least.
presser predicts:
(1) “Give the Prez his bill or the troops don’t get their Humvees armored”.
(2) “The [fuck the FISA] bill gives Homeland Security the power to be sure a tragedy like this never happens again.”
If you haven’t seen this piece. Lawrence Korb on his recent trip to Iraq.
It is not pretty. Note the early stuff about the “contractors” also known as mercenaries.
-GSD
montag @
249
Yeah, but have you seen what it costs for replacement wiper blades? $2 Million-a-piece. *g*
TexasBetsy @ 251
Cause their policy was to increase fear, not preparedness….
Riesz Fischer @ 1
Why the hell is this all you ever have to say?
TREX.
I predict Bush will be:
- emotionally un-even and nervous
- more reactive than reflective
- if he takes questions they’ll be pre-arranged softballs
- and he’ll still stumble all over himself trying to answer them
Bottom Line: He won’t look Presidential, but at least this time he won’t stroll around with a guitar (????!), maybe.
TexasBetsy @ 252
Because the nation is being hollowed out by a bunch of corporatist, militarist, eltists.
-GSD
TRex @ 231
The problem will be blamed on the immigrants, who are bringing their murder rates with them. Every country that has a higher murder rate than the U.S. is African, Latin American, or Eastern European. (Okay, Thailand is Asian.)
#1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
#2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
#3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
#4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
#5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
#6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
#7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
#8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
#9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
#10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
#11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
#12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000 people
#13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
#14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
#15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
#16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
#17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
#18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
#19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
#20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
#21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
#22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
#23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
#24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
http://www.nationmaster.com/gr…..per-capita
TexasBetsy @ 250
Let me tell you something about today’s university administrators. They’re MBAs, the only class of human beings with less capacity to prepare for or respond to a real crisis than Alberto Gonzales. They communicate in bullet points. They do not understand the difference between “serving the students’ and faculty’s needs” and “remodeling the union so it looks good on the catalog cover.” They are, in short, bean-counting buffoons.
It surprises me not one bit if they didn’t have a plan in place and didn’t respond in any kind of clear and decisive way. These are the wrong people from whom to expect that.
TexasBetsy @ 252
These were my first questions, but I thought it best to leave them for another night. I think it shows another failed policy of Bush – Homeland Security. Of course, they will reuse Condi’s line, “If we had specific details of who, when and where, we would have moved Heaven & Earth …
Wigwam @ 213
And those damn feminists!
EvilDrPuma @ 248
Dumya says he is “horrified,” but why is he not horrified about the 3,000 U.S. soldiers he sent to their deaths? Have we seen any body bags and flag-draped coffins the past five years? He is not horrified at all; a megalomaniac has no emotion, and this asshole monkey is a caveman!
TRex @ 245
They’ve worked before, maybe with a tweak or two:
1.”They ’slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God”
2.”The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.
Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.
Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
I bid you farewell.”
3. “Bring ‘em on.”
4. “Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?”
Up it goes.
Late Late Nite is served.
Petrocelli @ 214
I’d be interested to know the breakdown of longarms vs. handguns, rather than just the comparison of “how many guns.” One of the big changes from the good ol’ days that many people cite when they grew up with guns is that those were mostly rifles and shotguns; there are vastly more handguns now.
I suspect the Canadians have a saner approach to gun laws in rural vs. urban areas, too.
My predictions are on my posts at 121 and 86 I will try and think of more later. Are we keeping score tomarrow?
Patrick 4/4 @ 265
And don’t forget the ever-popular…
5. “This all worked out very well for them.”
GSD @ 261
after shrub’s misrule we may be able to use some more elitism, after a sort… beginning with a literacy test for the presidency.
Late Late Nite
EvilDrPuma @ 271
You’re right, but I couldn’t trouble my beautiful mind with that.
TRex @ 231
Could he find some way to blame it on Clinton? Or, perhaps, on Senator Webb’s electoral victory on 11/07/06 (making Virginia unsafe)?
Kassandra is gone now and I’ve just arrived after work. But I am mightily impressed that a 15 year-old girl is with us in the comments. I find that astounding, amazing, and totally wonderful.
She’s going to be a great American.
prediction Joe Scarbrough and the rest of the MSM will be saying the same GOP talking points before bush says them
TexasBetsy @ 254
Okay, he’s a mechanic–and the National Guard is another, different problem. The Guard has a specific problem–they’re leaving equipment there as they rotate out, which is why a lot of the equipment needing repairs there is being left and not returned for repairs–it’s mostly being dumped because it’s not on the regular army’s inventory. If the Guard can’t get spare parts, it’s because the regular army is getting first shot at them.
But, as I said, contractors are doing repairs–as described here.
But, my original point was that it’s not about money. The Army has had money thrown at it now for six years, much of it still not accounted for.
Cheers.
Say it, Dr Puma!
TRex @ 231
Democrats will be blamed for distracting AGAG and law enforcement agencies that might have prevented…
things come undone @ 277
Just the fax, ma’m.
We’ve all become colder and coarsened.
The future, richly imagined by so many, revoked.
Just numbers.
Speed bumps in the way to postponed political agendas. ? ?
Dead youth in service to political pundits?
War weary and wounded we are.
Picking at fresh corpses for some sustenance the vultures go to video.
Possible excerpt from the Kowboy’s speech:
“My fellow ‘Merikins. This is a very tragic event that has befallen here. I have thought long and hard about why these terrible shootings keep on happening to our schools. And I believe the answer is education. That’s right – education. If we close down the schools (except, of course, the Bible-centered ones, because God will protect them) then we will not have any more school shootings. We have to stop the school killings before they start. This means no more schools. To tell you the truth, I never did like school myself (except for the fraternies!). So, effective today, all secular schools will be closed. Instead, all former students will be required to watch 8 hours a day of Fox News. That way, they’ll learn what’s important. God bless America.”
Redshift @
269
I don’t think it’s the gun laws as much as it is the culture that is so different. We meet lots of Americans who say they actually felt their blood pressure drop when they crossed the border into Canada. We apologize when someone steps on our toes … it is a feeling of calmness, security, not getting caught up in the “US vs THEM” fight to the death, new world order, they hate our freedoms, obey your President who talks to GOD …
Redshift @
269
… and our hunters do not use automatic weapons to hunt ‘wild game’ on a ‘game farm’.
radlib1 @ 276
As her Aunt Betsy, let me say … she already is a great American. (And is sound asleep.)
TexasBetsy @
286
She’s only 15? Wow, can’t say I’m surprised though, I talk a lot to kids of her generation and … the future is bright … now if only we can stop these idiots from messing up the present any more.
Kassandra (who will be snarky again tomorrow) @
103
Hey, Cassie! I thought you were gonna wait until tomorrow to get snarky again? :-)
Have you read all of the Harry Potter books? If so, do you like the latest books as much as the earlier ones?
Bob in HI
prediction Shooter will be nowhere near the press or the president for the next month. There is noway karl wants HIM giving an opinion on the shooting. Also the MSM will not draw any comparisions between the shooter and Shooter
I’m waiting for the day when George Bush shows up to speak and he finds himself in an empty room. Perhaps WVTech would be the perfect opportunity for people to let him know what they thought about his insane statement.
I wrote this before at 121 and 86 so I will try and be brief
1)bush will exploit the victims and defend gun owners by claiming this would never have happened if all the students had guns.
2) bush and the MSM will blame hollywood for lowering the morals of our society, yet he will forget to mention all the films hollywood makes that glorify guns and violence
3) Joe Scarbourgh and the rest of the MSM will be reciting the GOP talking points before bush speaks, remeber repeating the SAME message as often as possible is the best way to brainwash America
bush and the MSM will accuse LIBERALS OF EXPLOITING THE TRAGEDY by calling for gun control
Tomarrow a national day of mourning
David Broder will claim that this tragedy will unite Americans and help bush come back in the polls
neurophius @ 233
No, not Laura; he’ll use the Twins.
Bob in HI
Jerry Fawell, Pat Robertson and out of control gambler I lost a million Bill Bennet will be all over the TV blaming Liberals. They will bad mouth America and claim that we are all sinners.
punaise @ 250
Quelle horror! That doesn’t look like French to me. Je suis triste?
Bob in HI
If the shooter voted for the democrats last fall it will be all over the news tomarrow. On the other hand if the shooter was a bush Pioneer, bush voter listened to Rush, read rightwing blogs we won’t hear a thing for at least a week.
No pictures of college students protesting bush if he goes to the school we need somebody there with a video camera! After all bush the baseball fiend did not throw out the first pitch this baseball season and Karl got pelted outside a college republican meeting the guy is likly to be protested, but the MSM won’t cover it unless we cover it!