Stories to Watch: 4/16/13

Having worked themselves up into a fevered frenzy of wrong, rightwing bloggers just can't stop speculating about the Boston bombing. Ok, so it wasn't Al Qaeda or that Saudi kid, so it must be the Somali group Al-Shabaab. Why? Because they wrote three tweets celebrating the bombing. That's it. That's the mountain of evidence. After watching the wingnut media leap into action since yesterday, I quite literally have no freakin' clue how anyone could ever possibly take them seriously. They have so thoroughly beclowned themselves here and, having learned nothing from the experience, continue to do so over and over and over. I wish I could find it funny, but it's just too appalling.


Also appalling: two men are escorted off a Boston plane, apparently for a very suspicious activity known as "speaking Arabic." Lawmakers worry that anti-Muslim hate crimes will rise -- which, of course, they will. Scared people are dangerous people, which makes bigoted cowards a real public menace. For those who are too young to remember 9/11 well, here's some advice: strap in, it's going to get stupid.


Wingnuts waste no time in a rush to exploit the bombing to try to get their failed "Benghazi-gate" pseudo-scandal back in the news.


Newly-minted Pope Francis gets right to work on some nun-bashing.


Cowardly red state dems stand a good chance of derailing background check legislation. Primary them. Primary them all.


Meanwhile, Newtown families want a face-to-face with Mitch McConnell.


Feds intercept a letter laced with the toxin ricin headed for the office of Republican Sen. Roger Wicker. Anyone who remembers the anthrax attacks after 9/11 should be getting chills right about now. As a target, Wicker seems pretty random. There's nothing especially out of the ordinary about him and he's not exactly GOP leadership.


Finally, are you ready for some good news for a change? Here goes: President Obama threatens to veto CISPA, because it intrudes on privacy.


[photo by hahatango]