fbi

We knew it was only a matter of time:

Rebekah Brooks, the loyal lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, resigned Friday as chief executive of his embattled British newspapers, becoming the biggest casualty so far in the phone hacking scandal at a Sunday tabloid.

Murdoch had vigorously defended Brooks in the face of demands from politicians that she step down, and had previously refused to accept her resignation.

Brooks was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003, the time of the most explosive allegations to hit Murdoch's News Corp. media empire, and she has been in charge of News International's four British newspapers since 2007.

Of course this does not absolve her of any wrongdoing, but the fact that the Murdoch's accepted her resignation doesn't bode well for the media empire, especially with the announcement yesterday from the FBI that they have launched an investigation into the possible hacking of 9/11 victims here in the U.S.

Yesterday the Republican’s released a plan to cut $2.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years. The plan is being met with a lot of skepticism, even from FOX News where Neil Cavuto noted that the plan actually saves only $330 billion.

The plan, which does not touch the Pentagon or Homeland Security, calls to return non-discretionary spending to the 2006 level. Think Progress highlights why this is such a bad idea:

Returning non-defense discretionary spending to the 2006 level — and then keeping it there — would result in billions of dollars in cuts to vital and popular programs and agencies like Pell Grants, the FBI, the Coast Guard, the National Institutes of Health and the federal prison system.

But even worse, as Steve Benen points out, is that the GOP’s new plan would cost us thousands, if not more, of jobs:

And the nutjobs are still at it:

"We can confirm that there was a threat against Senator Bennet's office and that the FBI working with the Capitol Police have arrested the individual responsible for the threat. Per their advice, we are referring inquiries related to this matter to the Capitol Police. Michael has full confidence in the law enforcement agencies handling the case and remains focused on his job serving the people of Colorado."

Now there are reports of shots being fired at the Murfreesboro Islamic Center in Tennessee (via The Political Carnival):

Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired this afternoon near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.

The report came just hours after a fire of suspicious nature damaged construction equipment at the site.

A group of congregation members was at the site looking at the damage done to construction equipment by the fire overnight when they heard nine shots fired from two directions.

The incident occurred around 3:15 p.m. The congregation members reported hearing six shots coming from one direction, and about three minutes later they heard three more shots from another direction, said Saleh Sbenaty, a congregation member and MTSU professor.

(snip)

One piece of construction equipment was damaged over the weekend when it was burned, and three other pieces of equipment were doused with some sort of accelerant, Sbenaty said.

The sheriff’s office, FBI and Bureau of ATF are investigating the fire.

This is just hours after arson destroyed construction equipment at the site, an incident that is now classified as a hate-crime.

Welcome to my newest acronym – Angry Men With Guns. I came up with it while reading this article from Politico talking about the rise in threats against lawmakers. The key passage:

Though each threat case is different, the FBI documents reveal some common characteristics. The suspects are mostly men who own guns, and several had been treated for mental illness. Most of the suspects had just undergone some kind of major life stress, such as illness or the loss of a job.

So they not only have guns, but also mental illness? Now that’s some 2nd amendment yumminess right there. Kind of like this guy:

I voted for you,” the caller said in a voice mail to Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler’s district office. “If you vote for that stimulus package, I’m gonna kill you. Simple as that.”

The FBI says the caller was a 70-year-old resident of Shuler’s North Carolina district with a history of mental illness and a cache of guns. In the weeks before calling Shuler’s office, the FBI says, the caller beat and choked his wife. She told the FBI that she’d tried to clear her home of guns — and that she went to bed at night with a can of mace tucked under her pillow.

But we sure don’t need more gun control! The founding fathers intentions were that crazy people can get mad and threaten to blow away our democratically elected leaders, wasn’t it?

And you can be sure that if Congress took up more background checks for people buying guns and possibly denying people with mental issues, the Republicans would start screaming. That alone shows exemplifies the mental illness of the GOP.

From ABC:

Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to "light his shoes on fire" on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Authorities say an explosive team is on the way to the airport, and that while the presence of explosives has not yet been confirmed, they believe it was an attempted "shoe bomb."

The suspect was identified by authorities as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi. The FBI said the man had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul.

Authorities said two jet fighters were scrambled from Buckley Air Force Base to accompany United flight 663, a Boeing 757, as it flew the final 40 miles to Denver where it landed safely.

Authorities said the man, identified as from Qatar, was restrained by the air marshals who were on the flight.

Coming up tomorrow – nonstop interviews with Dick Cheney.

UPDATE (10:40):

Per Pete Williams on MSNBC there is no shoe bomb. Apparently the suspect spent an extra long time in the bathroom. When he finally came out an air marshal said he smelled smoke and asked the suspect what he was doing. The suspect responded “trying to light my shoes on fire”. They now believe he was smoking a cigarette in the bathroom.

The right wing rhetoric continues to stoke violence:

A 64-year-old Yakima County man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Sen. Patty Murray over her support of the National Health Care Reform Act.

The FBI and local police arrested Charles Alan Wilson at his Selah home early Tuesday. Wilson was scheduled to make an appearance in U.S. District Court in Yakima, and he will then be transported to Seattle, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to the charges, staffers in Murray's office in the Jackson Building in downtown Seattle had become concerned over a series of phone calls by an unknown man over the past several months. The calls came from a blocked number, and often were made in the evenings or on weekends.

What really strikes my curiosity is the fact that this story is about 4 hours old now and when looking at the thread on Memeorandum it appears to have totally missed the radar of the right wing blogs. This seems to be somewhat of a trend from the right. When these big stories always break I monitor the right wing sites just to see what their talking points may be. You usually won’t see anything for a few hours and then the onslaught of posts occur. It’s almost like a game of “follow the leader”, but who is that leader?

Just breaking:

Hazardous material crews were called to an IRS building in Ogden, Utah on Monday, less than two weeks after a man deliberately crashed his private plane into a Texas building that housed IRS workers, according to local reports.

The FBI was called to the scene and reporters were not allowed into the building after the incident, The Standard-Examiner reported. Showers were being used to deal with "a possible chemical situation," according to the local ABC affiliate.

The news station alluded to dispatcher calls that indicated a powder may have been found in the mail at the facility.

I’m sure that al-GOP is cheering this on.