Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Guerilla Lawsuit Day

It was supposed to be Gorilla Suit Day, and instead it turned into Guerrilla Lawsuit Day!

The spin machine is working. There’s lots of tough talk, and an arrest has been made in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force “guerrilla” advertising campaign.

Artist arrested for planting marketing figures

By Maria Cramer and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

The man who sent city and State Police rushing to defuse what they believed were explosive devices around the Boston region was arrested tonight.

Attorney General Martha Coakley scheduled a 9 p.m. press conference to announce the arrrest of Peter Berdvosky, an Arlington artist.

What stopped the city was the way the situation was handled. Here’s audio from WBZ radio. You’ll hear some of a news report, the beginning of Paul Sullivan’s talk show, and part of the opening statement at that 9 p.m. news conference by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Lots of talk about getting tough, along with the usual compliments about how well all of the various agencies cooperated, and what a great job everybody is doing, blah, blah, blah…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JAN07/WBZBostonTerror.mp3]

The Boston Globe has posted this editorial, and I’m glad it includes the following comment:

Homeland Security experts will need to review the response of local law enforcement. Public safety personnel may have overreacted; local bloggers apparently identified the guerrilla advertising campaign early on.

The fact that the promotional campaign was orchestrated by an advertising agency on behalf of The Cartoon Network isn’t incidental or irrelevant, but these mysterious objects could have been a stunt by college kids. Does this mean that ANYthing out of the ordinary, no matter what it is, can result in an emergency response of such magnitude? If so, then we’ve lost the war on terrorism.

Aqua Teen Terror Force

Aqua Teen Terror Force

Once again, when it mattered most, Boston, Massachusetts, my area of residence, did the wrong thing. Today had some of the most comical examples of incompetence the city and the Commonwealth have ever displayed. Colbert is going to have a blast with this tonight (well, OK, not tonight). Our new governor, Deval Patrick, must be furious to have this as the first crisis of his administration.

Fortunately it was comical, because the last time we screwed up this badly, 11-Sept-01, the outcome was anything but funny. If you don’t know what happened, click here. If that link asks you for a registration that you don’t want to have, click here.

At the moment, reader comments on Boston.com are mostly critical of the reaction and response by the city and state. Here are a few examples:

…The only people that should get in trouble for this are the idiots that thought they were bombs

…look, i realize that thing arent what they were 10 years ago, but the authorities need to apply common sense to these types of situations instead of rushing into defcon 5. and they can relax with the macho posturing about “getting to the bottom of this hoax” already; you guys look plenty stupid so far, i would suggest you drop it before you embarass [sic] yourselves further. turner and the ad company did nothing wrong, i hope they defend themselves against this “anti-terrorist” dog-and-pony show

…If these devices have been in place in other cities without problems, then it shows what idiots we have running the show in Boston

The terrorists have won! And they didn’t even have to do anything today to succeed. If anything, today’s events highlighted that we have more to fear from the appalling condition of the city’s bridges and overpasses. This thing looks like it’s ready to collapse on its own, no bomb necessary!

Bridge over troubled water

SOTU ’07

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JAN07/SOTU.flv 400 300]

Many bloggers who are far more educated, erudite and knowledgeable than myself will have much to say about tonight’s State of the Union speech. So I’ve selected just one minute of it.

Bush refers to the 19 men who “got onto airplanes” and came “to kill us.” Fifteen of those men were from Saudi Arabia.

Tonight, Bush said, “The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies, and share in the rights of all humanity.”

I’ve been to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and let me tell you something. Secure it is. Free it isn’t.

Hear any talk of invading Saudi Arabia? Didn’t think so.

Coldbert

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JAN07/Colbert15Jan07.flv 400 300]

I’m sure you’re checking out The Colbert Report online for yourself, right? Nobody is counting on me, I hope, to provide highlights, since the show is now available online.

But last Monday’s intro with Jon Stewart was too good to make you go look for it. He can be so cold, even cruel, sometimes.