No, I don’t miss the Seattle journalism scene one bit.

Gee…I wonder why??? ; )

The P-I immediately blamed the operator and published that he had previous convictions for drug abuse and suspicions of sex with underage teens. Of course, the cause of the accident wasn’t determined and announced to the public for weeks. And the operator’s past had nothing to do with his operation of the crane and nothing to do with the failure.

So the P-I does not care about the civil liberties or privacy of a white male. But suggest that two middle eastern men were casing a ferry and wanted for questioning by the FBI, well that is just a threat to our freedom and constitution, as well as racist.

The newspaper is a joke and it’s circulation is plummeting.

I understand that people have a hard time with the concept that we get to decide what is news and what isn’t, and what is fair and what isn’t.

They might have a hard time with that concept because it’s no longer true. Welcome to the 21st Century.

It would help ease a little tension though, if the FBI would tell us what exactly the suspicious behavior entailed…..(So-and-so saw this and that) Why so secret?

nottakingsides on August 23, 2007 at 5:06 PM

From the story above:

The men seemed inordinately interested in the operation of the vessel, took photographs of the interiors of the boats and went into areas tourists and commuters don’t normally go, the FBI has said.

That’s not enough? Does the normal ferry passenger do such things — repeatedly, and on different ferries? What exactly is so “secretive” about that description of their behaviour?

In the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leaders in that community say incidents of profiling and harassment have ebbed and flowed — increasing when Muslims are linked to news of the dayMuslims killing innocents and demanding death for anyone who looks at them sideways.

The agency also has said the men’s actions could be innocuous, but it needs to question them.

For some reason, what really bothers me about this story is that the P I and other lefties feel the need to protect these innocent-as-babes men. They did something weird and as yet unexplained. Why is it too much to ask that they come forward and explain that themselves? If they have a good explanation for their actions, wouldn’t they have come forward by now? The fact that they haven’t is the most damning evidence against them.

And no, I don’t care if they claim they were too scared to come forward. Adults should act adult and do what’s right.

“We won’t stop doing it, but we’re sorry we have to do it. As a matter of fact, go on and have a further preemptive apology for the next time. Sorry.”

In fact their community and it’s members hadn’t even entered my mind.

Dusty

Same here …

Anecdotal, I know, but, still, I doubt my attitude was out of the mainstream. I swear, though, the best thing the Arab/Muslim Community could do to reduce resentment of the Arab/Muslim Community is to throw their Community leaders under the bus.

Who cares?

I thought the MM’s talking point was that all of these “moderate/liberal” Muslims were on our side? If so, then HELP THE FBI and quit whining already!

Are there any more?

Seattle is, surprisingly, not nearly as liberal as one would think. I’m continually surprised by it after moving out here. Arizona was more liberal than this.

askheaves on August 23, 2007 at 4:05 PM

I haven’t spent much time in Az, but I spent most of a year in Seattle. True, there are many conservatives in the state, but the Ca. immigrants have just about completely taken over the government there. Seattle itself was ridiculously liberal in its encouragement of every leftist cause.

From the endless bumper stickers, to the Bushitler posters on every bulletin board and that overpass the leftists would dangle their slogan of the day from, it is just a ridiculously naive and activist city.

San Fran wins the hippy sweepstakes hands down in my experience (what other place can you go to a party and watch a 20-something elementary school teacher roll a joint while she argues with you over your assertion there are 50 states). But Seattle ain’t far behind.

Oh, I forgot, we are the only ones that are supposed to generate good will. duh

“We need to get some type of apology from them and figure out how to get back to where we were,” said Rita Zawaideh, head of the Arab-American Community Coalition.

FORGET THE APOLOGY! But as far as the rest of her needs. She just needs to go to the local airport ( You know, the one where christmas isn’t allowed ) and buy a one way ticket back to the Middle Ages East. NOW WAS THAT SO HARD TO FIGURE OUT?

How can you be sure they are Muslims and Arabs just by looking at a photograph?

Exactly. This is entirely un-like the katrina photo caption mess. FBI releases photo of two men, we come to our own conclusions as to their ethnicity and religion. If the preponderance of our experience with terrorism leads us to think muslim/middle east, whose goddamn fault is that?

If the only relationship the FBI had was that they always kissed some @$$ before they sought the help of a vigilant public, then that’s one “relationship” I think we can live without.