The first confirmed victim of the bombings in Boston was just a few feet away from the man who cowardly took his life.
Author: Ezra Grant
I'm just tired of the lies and nonsense coming from the GOP, so this is my little contribution to combat the nonsense!
Police killed one suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing during a shootout and were engaged in a house-to-house search for a second man on Friday in the Boston suburb of Watertown after a bloody night of shooting and explosions in the city’s streets.
Authorities warned people in Watertown not to leave their homes and not to answer the door. During the night a university police officer was killed, a transit police officer was wounded, and the suspects carjacked a vehicle before leading police on a chase that ended with one suspect shot dead.
Police said the suspect they were seeking was the man shown wearing a white cap in surveillance pictures released on Thursday night which had been taken shortly before Monday’s explosions that killed three people and wounded 176 at the finish of the Boston Marathon.
The blasts triggered security scares across the United States and evoked memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks. On Friday the authorities effectively closed down Boston, halting transportation systems and telling people to stay home as the hunt continued.
Officials said as police had closed in on the two men overnight they attacked the officers with explosives and gunfire before one of them was shot and taken to a hospital, where he died.
Police were searching for the man known as Suspect 2 who was photographed wearing a white hat just before the explosions that killed three people and wounded 176. The blasts triggered security scares across the United States and evoked memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“We believe this to be a terrorist,” said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis of the suspect still at large. “We believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people. We need to get him in custody.”
The dramatic events overnight followed the release on Thursday by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of pictures and video of two suspects seen wearing backpacks and baseball caps in the crowd minutes before the bombs exploded.
About five hours later, a university police officer was shot and killed on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Middlesex County District Attorney said in a statement.
A short time later, police received reports of a carjacking by two men who kept their victim inside the car for about half an hour before releasing him, the statement said.
Police pursued that car to Watertown, where explosives were thrown from the car at police and shots were exchanged, the statement said.
“During the exchange of the gunfire, we believe that one of the suspects was struck and ultimately taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee from that car and there is an active search going on at this point in time,” Colonel Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, told a news conference.
The wounded suspect was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he died, said Dr. Richard Wolfe, chief of emergency medicine.
h/t Reuters
A homeless man accused of snatching an iPhone from a 3-year-old boy in Greenwich Village told cops the tyke sold him the phone fair and square — for $2.
“Yeah, I f—ed up,” Feliberto Ramirez, 53, admitted after his arrest last month, according to a police confession released today, as he pleaded not guilty to grand larceny before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel.
“I took the phone,” Ramirez admitted. “But I offered the kid two dollars. He shook his head, said yeah, and he handed me the phone. And I walked out of the store,” he told cops, according to the confession.
As the Post first reported, the tyke, Aidan Tally, of Lodi, NJ, had been playing “Subway Surfer” on his mom’s smart phone while she shopped for sneakers just three feet away in Zacky’s on Broadway.
Ramirez did toss little Aidan a couple bucks before bolting out of Zacky’s on Broadway with the phone, cops said, but that isn’t getting him out of jail just yet.
Ramirez remains held in lieu of $10,000 bail.
h/t NY Post
The FBI just released this video showing the two men they believe caused the bombing in Boston. According to the press release, the man in the white cap was seen on video placing a bag in the vicinity of one of the bombings.
Anyone having information on who these men are should call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), prompt #3, with information.
The video below shows a man doing what any other tech savvy person would be tempted to do. Sitting in his car with a companion, the man thought they were at a safe distance, as he filmed the beginning stages of the Texas Fertilizer plant going up in flames.
Then a few seconds into the video the explosion is seen and the man and his companion soon realized that they were a little too close for comfort.
It was later revealed that the occupants of the car was a man and his daughter. According to the Today Show, they have regained their hearing. According to KWTX, as many as 70 people may have been killed.
Warning: This may be disturbing to some.
h/t Mashable
The Senate’s refusal to do the right thing yesterday and approve extended background checks rubbed many Americans the wrong way. After all, 90% of the American people wanted this amendment passed. But republicans successfully killed the measure, choosing instead to cater to the demands of the NRA.
Expressing her disappointment is Gabby Giffords, herself a victim of gun violence when she was shot in the head by a crazed gunman. Giffords spoke out in an op-ed in today’s New York Times.
SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.
On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms – a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.
Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents – who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.
I watch TV and read the papers like everyone else. We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending.
Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo – desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation – to go on.
I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences.
People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. And then the gunman shot him, and then Gabe died. His body lay on the pavement in front of the Safeway for hours.
I have thought a lot about why Gabe ran toward me when he could have run away. Service was part of his life, but it was also his job. The senators who voted against background checks for online and gun-show sales, and those who voted against checks to screen out would-be gun buyers with mental illness, failed to do their job.
Read More.
Yes, 90% of Americans wanted at least a background check done whenever someone buys a gun. No, Americans did not get what they wanted today, as Republicans joined hand in hand and voted against that most basic idea.
And, these so-called Democrats joined the Republicans in defeating background checks.
Moments after Republicans succeeded in thwarting the will of 90% of Americans by defeating background checks, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his team couldn’t contain themselves. As Democratic leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrats consoled members of Newtown families that lost a loved one in Sandy Hook, this caption and picture appeared on McConnell’s Facebook page.
We love the memes you send us! Keep them coming!
Disgusting behavior indeed. A United States Senator is mocking the wishes of a majority of Americans, celebrating the defeat of a bill 90% of us wanted. And some of these Americans used McConnell’s Facebook post to express their displeasure in the Republican’s taste.
Below are some of the first responses to McConnell’s sick humor.
Got’cha again!
While the nation was busy mourning the devastation that happened in Boston on Monday, Republicans in the Senate, supported by a few Democrats managed to slowly and willfully kill background checks. Apparently what happened in Newtown Connecticut was not enough for these heartless Senators to support a bill that will guarantee making sure gun purchasers are sane enough to buy a gun.
The vote on the amendment was 54 to 46. Sixty votes were needed for the amendment to be adopted.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushes for an assault weapons ban in the U.S. while speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday.
The deal was the result of a deal struck between Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
As the bill was defeated, a voice in the Senate gallery could be heard yelling “Shame on you!”
The Manchin-Toomey amendment would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows. It was vehemently opposed by the National Rifle Association, who said it infringed on the rights of gun owners.
BOSTON (AP) — A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is about to be arrested, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Wednesday.
The official was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The suspect was to be taken into custody by federal marshals and taken to a Boston courthouse, the official said.
The official spoke shortly after several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the two bomb blasts.
An official news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.
Law enforcement agencies had earlier pleaded for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 170 on Monday.
Investigators circulated information about the bombs, which involved kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and other lethal shrapnel. But the FBI said nobody had claimed responsibility.
A person close to the investigation had previously told AP the bombs consisted of explosives put in 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one with shards of metal and ball bearings, the other with nails.
h/t AP
Are you tired of all the hate coming from the so-called “Church” in Florida better known as the Westboro Baptist Church? Well if you are, then you’ll love the decorations Anonymous has done to their official Facebook page.
A little disturbing background: While the entire nation mourned, the so-called “Church” recently announced that they would protest the funerals of those killed on Monday in the terrorist attack in Boston. Protesting funerals of upstanding Americans like those who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the kids who were murdered in Newtown Connecticut, is something Westboro is known for. It is their twisted way of bringing attention to their cause: Hate.
Well Anonymous has had enough and they took over Westboro’s official Facebook page, posting things a Church should actually be posting… things about love, peace and caring. And based on the comments, it seems that a majority of people are supporting Anonymous’ actions.
Personally, I’m wondering why this wasn’t done much much earlier.
Here’s an example of Westboro Anonymous’ posts and the responses it received. And take a look at Westboro’s Facebook page.
New Hampshire State Rep. Peter Hansen referred to women as “vaginas” in an email to colleagues sent on the legislature’s official internal listserv. In response to a message debating a “stand your ground” measure being considered by the State House, the Republican lawmaker wrote:
What could possibly be missing from those factual tales of successful retreat in VT, Germany, and the bowels of Amsterdam? Why children and vagina’s of course. While the tales relate the actions of a solitary male the outcome cannot relate to similar situations where children and women and mothers are the potential victims.
Hansen’s use of metonym outraged his Democratic and Republican colleagues, prompting Democratice State Rep. Rick Watrous to respond:
“Children and vagina’s”??!! Are you really using “vaginas” as a crude catch-all for women? Really? Please think before you send out such offensive language on the legislative listserve.”
NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire weighed in, too:
Shame on Representative Hansen — we will do everything in our power to ensure voters in his district know about his demeaning rhetoric. Women are more than their reproductive organs. We are daughters, sisters, mothers, students, professionals, and community leaders. We deserve more than being referenced by our body parts.
Hansen initially remained defiant in response to criticism, explaining that he had a “fairly well educated mind” and did not need his colleagues to act as “self-appointed wardens” to his speech. He went on to suggest that anyone offended by his use of female genitalia to describe women everywhere should “re-examine [their] psyche.”
But his critics persisted and Hansen relented over his figure of speech, at least a little:
was not, and is not, my intention to demean women at any time. It is apparent that the intent of my remarks has been misinterpreted, the true goal of the message lost and for that I apologize to those who took offense.
h/t Salon