This seems like it could be Important

I'm re-posting this from Phydeaux and Phriends 'cause it seems like a story that should be getting more coverage. Or any coverage.

19 May 2010

It's Not News Unless It Fits the Narrative

Did you hear about the terrorist attack in Florida last week? Unless you live in Jacksonville, you probably haven't. Outside of local news (and, now, online), there's been no mention of this act -- even dismissed as a "deranged individual" or a "one-off".

Despicable.

This is the direct result of profit-driven news divisions.

In case the links don't work, here's the story from Crooks and Liars:

Florida mosque bombed; FBI calls for help; national media mute

By karoli Wednesday May 19, 2010 2:00pm

On May 10th, a middle-aged man carried a can of gasoline and a pipe bomb into the Jacksonville Islamic Center of Northeast Florida during evening prayers and detonated it. Fortunately, there were no injuries to people, though the bomb did damage property.

The surveillance video above gives a fairly decent picture of this man, who is clearly white, middle-aged, and on a mission.

The local news is all over it, of course. WOKV.com reports the FBI investigating it as a hate crime and possible domestic terrorism.

"It was a dangerous device, and had anybody been around it they could have been seriously injured or killed," says Special Agent James Casey. "We want to sort of emphasize the seriousness of the thing and not let people believe that this was just a match and a little bit of gasoline that was spread around."

Casey says surveillance video from the Islamic Center shows the arsonist carrying gasoline and the pipe bomb. When the explosive went off, parts of it were found 100 feet away on 9A.

So, a mosque is bombed by a white guy and the bomb isn't exactly small, but the national media sees no value in reporting it? Really? And yet, that is evidently the case.

Random Thoughts On Rand Paul

Random thought #1:
What kind of a douchebag names his kid after Ayn Rand? How does that conversation go?

Mrs. Paul: Honey, I was thinking that if it's a boy, we might name him after my father.
Ron Paul: Nope. Gonna name 'im after my favorite pseudo-philosopher! The woman who put a quasi-intellectual sheen on being a self-centered asshole, Ayn Rand.
Mrs. P: But what if it's a boy?
Ron P: If it's a boy, we'll name him "Rand." "Ayn" if it's a girl, "Rand" if it's a boy.
Mrs. P: But what if he doesn't grow up to be a narcissistic bag of greed?
Ron P: Oh, he will, honey! He will!

Random Thought # 2:
What kind of a tool gives an acceptance speech at a country club? Especially when the teabaggers make such a big deal of their phony populism, it seems a little politically tone-deaf to give your obligatory "standing up for the common folk against the Washington fat cats" speech at a place whose name is synonymous with elitism.

Random Thought #3:
Why do we have to pretend that this victory is some sort of a big deal? It's a primary. Primary voters tend to be those on the right wing of the Republican Party, it's not surprising that they would choose the nutty libertarian. And I gotta think that having a famous/notorious father probably did at least as much to propel him to victory as his affiliation with the Teabaggers. (See Bush, George W.)
If/when a teabagger candidate wins in a general election, then maybe, maybe that might be an indication that the Tea Party is a significant force in politics. Right now, you've just got an extremist candidate being nominated by Republican voters. Quell Surprise! The bigger story is that in Kentucky of all places, there were nearly 200,000 more votes cast in the Democratic Primary than in the Republican one. (Source: Pensito Review) That doesn't bode well for Rand in the general election.