This is not meant to make light of the possible terrorist attack in Oslo, but I’d like to know: where is this going? Do the Norwegians deserve it for being lefty pantywaists who don’t properly fear the threat of Islamofascism? Or did they get hit because they are our brave comrade-in-arms in Afghanistan? Either way, this means we should double down on all our Middle Eastern adventures, I’m sure.
Update. I apologize if this sounds flip. Personally, I think the way that the right manipulates reaction to these things is what’s offensive and should be nipped in the bud as soon as possible.
Update. This is strange:
[Update: 12:39 p.m. ET, 6:39 p.m. Oslo] Shots were fired at an Oslo youth meeting following the blast, police told Reuters, quoted by CNN TV. No further details were available.
Despite the timing and other factors, maybe one shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that this was done by an Islamic group.
Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
And we should cut taxes, too, just to be on the safe side. Also.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Well aren’t you just a bucket of sunshine today, DougJ.
TreeBeard
As much as I like your posts, Doug, I don’t think this sort of a post is really necessary within moments of the blast. I understand your frustration, but not every immediate reaction needs airing.
Just my opinion though, and it’s not my sandbox or soapbox.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
I see your point, but I am profoundly depressed by the reaction that we will no doubt see and believe that these reactions are a large part of why these awful things continue to happen. Maybe this is a wrong way of seeing it, but I almost see it as disrespectful not to mock the absurdity of the reactions.
MattF
Funny, that… all premises lead to the same conclusion. Also, cut taxes.
cat48
We can’t afford any more ME adventures so more local crack downs probably is my guess. If it was a carbomb, longer walks.
Head Bulshytt Talker in Chief of the Temple of Libertarianism(superluminar)
@DougJ
Really, dude? This was pretty weak (not to mention offensive as mentioned above). I thought you were cooler than this.
PeakVT
Guardian live coverage. NRK live stream.
Punchy
Clearly we need to start drone-bombing Norway, as soon as we find out how Andy Sullivan feels about the designated hitter rule.
The Dangerman
Wasn’t Norway involved in the Libya strikes? And didn’t MQ say he would attack Europe?
Alex S.
Lol? This is waaay too early for any conclusion. Not every terrorist is a muslim although my first guess would be a terrorist group aligned with Gaddafi. But at the moment we don’t know anything.
sukabi
I remember a while ago in this country a big bombing…. the very first reports coming out all assumed it was ‘arab terrorists’… funny how that worked out…
so quit jumping to unsupported conclusions.
Punchy
The MSNBC ahead of things, or behind the curve, because this looks to be the same shit sandy that was floated yesterday…
Edit: WOW: this blurb:
If entitlement and tax reform is completed on time, then the Bush tax cuts and the health-care law don’t get touched
They going to extend the Bush tax cuts FURTHER? Oh my.
Yevgraf
Clearly, Iran and North Korea need bombing and regime change in order to make sure that those existential threats are contained. Also, in addition to top tier tax cuts, we need entitlement cuts, regulatory reform and major tort reform.
Cue up the Lee Greenwood “Proud to be ‘Murkan” song…
aisce
@ treebeard
hmm. yes. you certainly wouldn’t want anybody to get the impression you were on a soapbox…
scav
Beeb commentators are not setting any records for intelligence is my grumpy remark of the day. Granted, it must be an effort to fill time. In other breaking news, idiots are still idiots.
Culture of Truth
DID OBAMA MAKE BOEHNER CRY?
“The speaker was the most sort of melancholy I’ve seen
him,” Rep. LaTourette said. “He wanted to, I think, report to the conference that substantial progress was being made, we’re moving in the right direction, and he couldn’t give that report.”
LaTourette said Boehner “he’s feeling that he’s getting nowhere fast.”
Davis X. Machina
a
terrorist group aligned with Gaddafigroup of freedom-fighters staring down UN/EU/NATO petrocapitalist imperialism.(I’m not learning any new categories for, or any new prisms through which to view, what happens abroad. I’m too damn old — the ones I learned in the ’60’s and ’70’s are just going to have to do.)
Catsy
After which you immediately began doing just that by snarking about imagined wingnut responses to the tragedy.
This is the same kind of disingenuous rhetorical contradiction employed by people who begin sentences with “I’m not a racist, but…” and then proceed to say something racist.
Prepending a disclaimer to what you have to say doesn’t give you a free pass for saying it.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
That wasn’t snark, it’s exactly what I think they will say.
gene108
You know who else hates income taxes? MUSLIMS!
Saudi Arabia, Dubai and the rest of the Persian Gulf states, to the best of my knowledge, don’t have personal income taxes.
They get there money the way Allah intended: From the sale of oil.
me
The attack comes days after Norwegian prosecutors filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, who is accused of threatening a former minister, Erna Solberg, with death.
aisce
@ dangerman, alex s.
lolz. gaddafi is activating the sleeper squads everybody! he’s a mastermind!
Villago Delenda Est
Was Grover Norquist seen anywhere in the vicinity of Oslo in the last 24 hours?
Just askin’.
Alex S.
@ Culture of Truth, 17:
Oh Lord, press reports on the debt ceiling negotiations are hysterical at the moment. Half of it isn’t even true. I’ll be tuned out of that for a while.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
Yes, I suspect that it is related to that.
What a shame, and I really hope this is handled sensibly.
The Dangerman
@aisce:
Sigh; reading is fundamental. Read my post again; did I say MQ was behind the attack? No, I didn’t. Let’s do it slowly for the reading impaired:
A simple binary question; no assignment of blame involved.
Another simple binary question; again, no assignment of blame involved.
stuckinred
I think I’ll tune into islamphobe Boortz for his comments!
Roger Moore
@sukabi:
This. More likely than not it’s some kind of internal political issue rather than international terror. My bet is it’s somebody from Norway’s extreme right wing who’s basically upset they’re completely ignored.
Catsy
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ: Great. When some of them actually start saying it, call them out for their bullshit. In the meantime, since nobody’s actually said anything like that yet, people get to call you on yours. This is in poor taste. The bodies aren’t even fucking cold yet.
Just Some Fuckhead
DougJ, thank you for expressing so clearly my thoughts on this matter.
Alex S.
@ aisce, 23:
Well, it’s not as if it hasn’t happened before…
David
from Gates of Vienna:
❛Update 11:41am EDT: Comment from Fjordman: “Please keep in mind that the left-wing government of Jens Stoltenberg that was just bombed is the most dhimmi appeasing of all Western governments, to the extent that this is humanly possible. They even wanted to fund Hamas openly a while ago.
“The most suicidal and cowardly government in a country with no colonial history was just attacked. How do you explain that as a response to Western ‘aggression’?”❜
stuckinred
This is a big ass bomb.
scav
cheers for the Norwegian the beeb was interviewing who calmly described his going to the shop for red bull after a big noise and told them that no, he wasn’t an eye-witness and they kept trying to get hair-raising details out of him.
Chris
Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the wingnuts were so fixated on the debt ceiling and the so-gosh-darn exciting prospect of taking down the Kenyan Usurper by taking down the economy, that they missed this event entirely.
There’ll still be a few comments, of course, and we can predict what they’ll say. Islamic plot to conquer Europe, this is what happens when you multiculturally open your doors to These People, Eurabia’s just around the corner and we hope that the Norwegians will have the courage to do What Is Necessary. But the debt ceiling war’ll probably completely overshadow this.
I mean, you haven’t heard much on the news about that bombing in Mumbai a week ago, have you?
andy
The Shock Doctrine is rolling out their new product in beautiful oil-rich Norway. What happens when a parasite kills it’s host?
Ol' Dirty DougJ
Even worse than I thought.
The whole thing is so depressing.
Martin
Assuming it’s the usual suspects at work here, I’m guessing they’re hoping that Norway decides to dump 3% of their GDP into tactics like groping little kids at the airports. Sooner or later so many western nations will be on lockdown, we won’t be able to afford to fuck around in the middle east any longer.
Hasn’t that been where this was going from day one?
LanceThruster
Sorry, but my first thought was false-flag.
I mean, cui bono…who benefits?
wrb
This is what happens when you have government health care.
People think that their risky actions will have no consequences and they start exploding stuff.
daveNYC
Possible, but then I would have expected that a Norwegian target in either Istanbul or Ankara to be the target.
Strange timing of the attack too.
Martin
Hmm. Maybe the teatards found their first target.
Jane2
This post is made for cable news hacks. Could you wait oh say 20 minutes to find out what might have happened before going into the usual response mode?
aisce
@ the dangerman
oh, i see. you weren’t insinuating anything, you were just asking questions. “isn’t it interesting that gaddafi threatened europe and then somebody bombed a government building in europe? hey, i’m not saying he’s responsible. i’m just asking questions.”
are you a fox news contributor by any chance?
sixers
He’s so depressed by the reaction we haven’t seen yet that his only recourse is to be insensitive.
stuckinred
Quick, throw up another thread!
Slowbama
Why no option for “There really are Islamic fundamentalist whackjobs in the world who will instigate terror attacks wherever they can, and Oslo happened to be convenient for them in this case?”
Just because we are pawns in a police/corporate state made by and for right wing kleptocrats doesn’t mean there aren’t actual other threats out there. One doesn’t necessarily cancel out the other.
stuckinred
From the Guardian
Oslo bomb: suspicion falls on Islamist militants
Ol' Dirty DougJ
We saw it, see Gates of Vienna above.
The Moar You Know
Guys – it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Nemo_N
Thing is, this will be used by conservatives to push for the continuation of policies that will kill far more people than this single blast could possibly do.
stuckinred
Nemo_N
Conservatives and Islamic fanatics.
scav
That’s certainly the approach the beeb is taking. although with the legalize cover of “we’re not doing this but let us spell out all the scary possibilities at great length and internationally and let’s be sure to bring in the Muslims” and they’re really beginning to annoy me.
Nethead Jay
@Davis #33: That’s about what I’d expect from Gates of Vienna, the crowd there is one of the most islamophobic I know of. From the nick fjordman I’d guess that’s a Norwegian commenting, we’ve got wingnut xenophobes here in the nordic countries too.
I’m in Denmark, just to the south of Norway, and I expect to be hearing the screeching of the hard right haters very soon. And here unfortunately they’re government supporters, not in opposition as in Norway.
Anyway, I just called a friend in Oslo and he says people are tense but not panicking. Looks like the material damage is worse than the human.
The Dangerman
@aisce:
Of course, I was insinuating something; I was insinuating that MQ had threatened to attack Europe and Europe was attacked. If I threaten my neighbor and my neighbor is attacked, the Police might consider me a suspect, no? Suspicion doesn’t equal blame.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
@Nethead
Thanks for the on-the-ground update. The material damage looks staggering. Let’s hope that as few people were hurt as early coverage suggests.
Lol
Lockerbie, much like the holocaust and 9/11, was ages ago so it doesn’t count really.
Joel
An attack on government buildings and a labor party youth camp. And in the city where the peace prize is given…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And now apparently as shooting at a Oslo youth camp,..
CNN
stuckinred
NRK has confirmed that a shooting has occurred at a youth camp outside Oslo. The camp is run by Labour Youth League, connected to the ruling party.
Rome Again
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ:
Until they say it, it’s still in the realm of the imaginary.
Joey Maloney
@Nethead Jay:
Really? I’d guess it’s more likely some stupid wanker posting from Orange County or Broken Dildo, Oklahoma, or Michelle Malkin’s fetid panties whose closest contact with Scandinavia was knawing on Zweiback crackers when he was teething.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
See 33 and 55.
Rome Again
Just a thought from me: the Anti-West Muslims must be having a field day watching the collapse of the American and European economies. Europe (just yesterday) found a way to agree on a new injection of funding for Greece – but if the EU has to spend money on fighting a terrorist threat, they will probably not meet that obligation.
Here in America, the Tea Party is doing their work for them.
stuckinred
Rome Again
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ:
I still don’t see where anything has been said.
Rome Again
@Joey Maloney:
Oh, please stop, I just ate.
Ol' Dirty DougJ
Gates of Vienna is giving a more offensive version of my initial reaction about what wingers would say.
Brachiator
Shit, these days I figure that the Internets is a conclusion jumping machine.
And since, this is a foreign, and foreign language story, I presume that, as is so often the case, many will jump to conclusions because they are too stupid, too lazy, and too jingoistic to follow international news sources. This leaves a lot of morans with 2 alternatives: watch Fox News or just make shit up.
Cynicism aside, it will be interesting to see if useful stuff pops up in Twitter feeds, and how various media entities will cover this story.
Note that I am in Southern California and my standard disgust at the news media, pundits and many bloggers is intensified by all the hypocritical bullshit that was spewed by people who previously were ready to lynch the guy who was accused of attacking the guy at dodger stadium, who are now having to eat their words now that the LAPD have announced that they have arrested two other guys and exonerated the original suspect.
Here jumping to conclusion was intertwined with pundits, columnists and talk radio hosts who fundamentally believe that being pro-cop means that you are also a semi-deputized junior armchair detective rubber stamp for whoever is arrested for a crime.
Nic
@DougJ I’m with you on this one.
Rome Again
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ:
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do!
Nethead Jay
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ: Thanks. Just talked to another friend on Facebook, who lives about 5 km outside the centre of Oslo where the explosions happened. She says the windows were rettling in their highrise and it was the loudest noise she’d ever heard. There’s talk now that it may have been 2 bombs in close proximity set off together. The central areas are totally cordoned off now and being combed through by police and military.
Also there’s something strange going on with a shooting on an island off the coast where there’s a summer camp organized by the Social Democratic youth organisation going on. Apparently someone posing as a police officer opened fire on participants. Perhaps significantly, the Norwegian prime minister was to have given an address there tomorrow. They’re saying an elite army unit has been dispatched there now.
Rome Again
@Brachiator:
I’m a fully deputized* detective** but I’m not on that case.
* – My uncle was a county sheriff who made me an honorary deputy at the age of 9
** – I recently worked as a private investigator
(formatting sucks, FYWP)
Ol' Dirty DougJ
What was that story about?
Brachiator
@Ol’ Dirty DougJ:
RE: Note that I am in Southern California and my standard disgust at the news media, pundits and many bloggers is intensified by all the hypocritical bullshit that was spewed by people who previously were ready to lynch the guy who was accused of attacking the guy at dodger stadium, who are now having to eat their words now that the LAPD have announced that they have arrested two other guys and exonerated the original suspect.
This sad case with a degree of national interest:
There had been an outpouring of shit like: “Oh yeah, Ramirez obviously did it, he’s a gangbanger, he’s got tattoos, good white people can’t go to Dodger Stadium anymore because it’s infested with Latinos, uh, we mean gangbangers, the cops brought this scum down.”
When the case was hot, the mayor and Chief of Police Charlie Beck held a press conference to announce that they just knew they had the suspect. And the media pundits kissed cop ass overtime.
But strange things started to happen. The case started looking shaky.
The press downplayed the fact that even after Ramirez had been arrested, the case was transferred from the original investigating officers to the LAPD elite Robbery Homicide Division. The accused announced that he was willing to take a lie detector test. His attorney calmly pointed out flaws in the evidence, and the hyenas in the media dismissed him as just another criminal defense lawyer whore trying to magically rustle up a cloud of “reasonable doubt.”
The cops actually did a good job. But this is not acceptable to the red meat asswipe pundits and talk radio hosts, who expect the police to be infallible.
And so here we are today, with Ramirez exonerated and cop ass kissers desperately looking for vindication. Fortunately, they have the mayor to kick around, blaming him for premature press conference.
Here ended the rant (for now)
Draylon Hogg
ITN news here in the UK just had an interview with a Norwegian journo who said the shooter was Nordic. They were, however, banging the Al Quaida drum beforehand. Scandanavia has quite a lot of neo-Nazis.
alwhite
NO NO NO NO NO – We have to jump to the conclusion is is Islamic terrorists. Then, if we are wrong we simply state “Well, its exactly the sort of thing you expect those rotten Muhammadmen would do so it as if the did.”
The Raven
It apparently was a radical nationalist of some sort. Doctor Science at Obsidian Wings, post.