Fox news, during the California wildfires last week:
Questionable 4-year-old FBI memo presented as new to stoke terror fears
Did al Qaeda start the California wildfires?
As more than a million people escaped the flames, Fox News anchors couldn’t help speculating about a terrorism link to the blazes ravaging southern California.
“I’ve heard some people talk about this a little bit to me, but have you heard anybody suggest that this could be some form of terrorism,” Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asked Wednesday morning.
Correspondent Adam Housley said he’s received “hundreds of comments” from readers of his Fox News blog speculating about a link to terrorism.
Rest easy, Fox news viewers, and come out of your bunkers. One of the terrorists has been apprehended:
Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.
The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.
“He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire,” Hecht said in a statement.
The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney’s office, Hecht said. It was not clear if he had been arrested or cited by detectives.
It really is hard to imagine something more irresponsible than the terrorism/wildfire link Fox News was trying to spread last week.
Bombadil
OK, so you don’t smoke dope — but are you on speed?
ThymeZone
How about the Saddam-Nuke link still being pimped by some Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani as recently as this week?
All embedded in the slickly orchestrated use of Iran as the new Iraq, scary, mushroom cloud, death, Bin Laden dining in the White House?
capelza
We must be afraid, very afraid..everything bad that happens to us must be terrorists. We can’t possibly be responsible for own disasters…
What kind of counters does the 4 y/o have? Will Fox suggest he be tried as an adult?
Bombadil
Um, it was the memo that was four years old.
ThymeZone
In case anyone thought I made that up.
I didn’t.
John Cole
Not unless my morning jolt of green tea counts as speed.
I don’t even drink coffee anymore. got tired of the aftertaste and the bad breath and the shakes, so now I drink either green tea, regular lipton tea, or a lipton/chai tea combo. For whatever reasons, I still get the same pick-me-up in the morning from the caffeine, but without all the nasty side-effects.
capelza
See! That’s how good the big brains in counter-terrorism are! They knew 4 years ago, that someone would set fires. They must have followed that star…visited the manger, etc.
Bombadil
Well, first off, I don’t think what you get from green tea actually counts as a “jolt”.
Funny, though, I don’t like tea so much because of the aftertaste. As for the shakes, I’m more likely to get them if I don’t drink coffee in the morning.
mightygodking
That would be a sign of your body’s serious addiction to caffeine. It’s a physically addictive drug, just like nicotine or heroin is. If you quit drinking coffee for a few weeks, you’d see the shakes go away. (I speak from experience – I drink grapefruit juice as my morning pick-me-up now. The sourness wakes me up and the sugars keep me going until daytime really kicks in.)
Heywood Jablomy
Sounds fishy to me, John. Matches causing forest fires? Have the team leader set up the miniatures so we can unalterably demonstrate that only Islamofascist fire tactics could have created such a blaze. I’ll get the waterboard out and we’ll have this lad’s confession in no time.
Dug Jay
I don’t know; Randi Rhodes on Air America was saying that Iraq contractor Blackwater was likely behind the fires as they wanted to get the land for new offices. Now, I’ll admit that she may have been drunk again when she spouted this.
Davebo
Was the kid vacationing from Maryland per chance?
And how did his parents afford those matches?
r€nato
sadly, that story will live on as ‘true’, in the minds of wingnuts for years…
Bombadil
But I like the shakes! And I can’t drink grapefruit juice as it negates the effects of certain prescription drugs.
Besides, I’ve never taken heroin and I already gave up smoking. I have to draw the line somewhere.
Svensker
The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21
This DOES NOT prove Fox News wrong!!!!!!! Let’s wait until we find out the family name, OK? I’m with Debbie Schlussel on this (even if she hasn’t said it yet, odds are she will) — there’s a good possibility this family is Muslim!
The mere fact that you don’t have an active imagination is causing the Islamofascists to win!!!
Jon H
Dastardly terrorists, sending a kid to do their dirty work.
I’m sure the kid will finger his cell after he’s been waterboarded a little.
Punchy
Fox puts the “error” in “terrorists”.
nightjar
It’s even more diabolical than first reported by Fox. The kid is an illegal alien AND a terrorist.
nightjar
Oops wrong link.
HyperIon
wrt the Al-Qaeda connection, i mentioned it last week in “The Fires” thread.
so WHY isn’t my comment displayed when i click the link? instead the post about which i was commenting is displayed. the comment number apppears correct: https://balloon-juice.com/?p=8921#comment-413610
ah, the mystery of Link… i include below the text of said comment.
HyperIon
so…the url embedded in the Link does not go to the exact comment but the explicit http string DOES. however, the explicit http string did not display as a clickable link in the preview. oh, well. live and learn.
hmmm. i’m sure some commenter here can explain all this but it seems that the Link functionality is not intuitive. Sad because we know that embedding the link is the right thing to do…in theory.
JWW
John,
What a rebreathing fool, you fuel the fire by starving the hungry and leaving the cold and unsheltered. “Another Terrorist Captured”, shame it wasn’t you. Do you have such an agenda, I think maybe, but wish too choose not. Why is it though, you spell out failure in all your posts. Why do you follow the lies, why do you feel so much hate? Has your world gone so wrong, that blame seems easy, convenience is the mainstay, or maybe you can shed your incompetence by jumping aboard the hate and distain floating around. I still wish to think better of you.
JWW
John,
Point being this, I maintain 9 fish tanks, 7 saltwater, 2 fresh water. If I err and feed the wrong food to any tank on any given day, somebody goes hungry. If I were too repeat the process day after day, most of the fish would survive by adaptation, but only at first. Sooner, rather than later, they would begin too die, each has it’s own needs. You and I are not so different. Read the stories of Valley Forge, Andersonville, Napolean’s army. The mind and body have needs, I see you as only feeding half of the equation, the mind. It may find a way too sustain for a while, in the long run you get nothing.
VidaLoca
Whoa… BIRDZILLA’s got competition here…