Puttin' On the Ritz

I have to agree with the Rude Pundit. The arrest of these sub Bozo-class dorkwad Harris and Klebold wannabes, Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman, for plotting to kill 88 people, decapitate 14 African Americans, culminating in the murder of Barack Obama stinks worse than a buzzard's morning breath. In fact, it reeks worse than a minstrel show minus the black grease paint and the occasional cheap laugh.

And the Rude One is right: This is the last pathetic, wheezing gasp of a right wing hate movement that had once bombed churches in Birmingham, murdering black children and kept a booming slave trade alive for better than four centuries. But I'm going to focus not on these skin-headed poster boys for condoms or their ludicrous plot to kill 88 people and chop off the heads of 14 black people (Were they planning on killing 87 people and/or decapitating 13, saving President Obama who would be swaddled with massive Secret Service security details for their glorious coup de grace? Or were they planning on killing Obama first and deluding themselves into thinking they could remain free long enough to kill the final 87? The mind boggles.).

When yours truly first heard this story last night after a hard day at work, the first thing I thought of on reading this interrupted Irving Berlin nightmare (white top hats and tails???) was, "Now, we wouldn't be talking about the "Liberty Tower" again, would we?

You remember that, right? Over two and a half years ago, Bush and Co. uncovered a terror plot involving Richard Reid shoe bombs, exploding cockpit doors and other trappings of bad airplane movies from "Snakes on a Plane" to "Executive Decision" to "Passenger 57." As it turned out, any spade work done to interrupt this very serious al Qaeda plot was actually done by Thai authorities.

Then there was the Woody Allen plot to blow up Kennedy airport by detonating a fuel tank, a masterstroke of terrorism genius that involved fake pizza deliveries.

Then there was the Chicago Seven, the seven al Qaeda groupies who were "plotting" to blow up the Sears Tower in the Windy City. As with the Kennedy airport "plot", it was buried in the fine print that neither "terror cell" was operational.

The list goes on and on like a diseased Energizer Bunny.

Now, JP isn't saying that there aren't any dangerous racist lunatics out there and obviously the feds would be criminally negligent if they didn't follow up on any and every lead that threatens the life of Sen. Obama or any prominent official.

But it seems to me that, in the wake of 9/11, we have more to fear from celebrities who kill their wives, disgruntled high school students and whoever murdered Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew than we do al Qaeda and post-GOP neonazi skinheads.

Of course, that's a gross oversimplification and isn't meant to be taken even with a grain of salt, even for third grade entertainment value. But what other conclusion is more tempting considering how many very real, very dangerous and very heavily-armed and well-financed skinheads and Middle Eastern terrorists are out there just waiting for the Keystone Kops of the US government to arrest, detain and torture them?

The very fact that these peckerheads Cowart and Schlesselman got caught before they had a chance to even inflict a serious paper cut on a black person's neck proves how neolithically stupid they are. Yet the news, which in a saner world wouldn't have even made the local police blotter considering what a complete tool fest it is, seems crafted as in a desperate reassurance that, yes, old Uncle Sam's still got it and is on the job.

Seriously. White tuxedos and top hats??? Was this the tipping point, this bizarre aside, that made it international news? The reason why Barack Obama got Secret Service protection earlier than any other presidential candidate ever is because of all the death threats he began getting practically the minute he announced his candidacy in Chicago early last year.

It appears that fear and sensationalism sell just as briskly for the MSM as it does for the current administration. Otherwise, who would care that the McCain volunteer who was attacked by a black man over a bumper sticker and had a backwards "B" carved into her face wasn't actually attacked nor mutilated by a black man at all but by her crazy-ass inner Lynndie England?