Shirts found with Wash. MLK parade bomb are local

[Kennah]

Source: Washington Post

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The two T-shirts found with a bomb placed along a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane both came from the same nearby county.

The FBI released photos of the shirts found inside a backpack containing the bomb, which was discovered on a bench Monday before the parade started and was defused without incident.

One of the shirts was distributed last year at the "Relay for Life" race in Colville, the seat of Stevens County.

The origin of the second shirt - which had the words "Treasure Island Spring 2009" on the front - wasn't immediately clear. But after the photos were released, residents called the FBI and media to report the shirt was from a local theater production in 2009 in the town of Chewelah, 50 miles north of Spokane.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012103191.html

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Mad bombers? In Eastern Washington? I'm shocked, shocked I say, shocked.

[Mojeoux]

1. Just random loonies? Not likely!

How nasty to bring terror to a beautiful thing like a march to honor MLK.

[MichaelHarris]

2. I've always said

racism is a sexually transmitted disease.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I'm a bit puzzled by your last line

Clearly, it's a reference to "Casablanca", but are you trying to sarcastically imply that Eastern Washington is full of people who would bomb an MLK Day parade?

The Washington State that I lived in four years ago had 100% of its counties vote for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic Primary, and Spokane elected African-American Jim Chase as mayor in 1981, and I don't think the black population of that city was ever much more than five percent.

While it is fitting and proper to pursue with all deliberate speed the identity of the bomber, it does not seem right to imply that even a sizable minority of eastern Washingtonians are sympathetic with this evil individual.

[gateley]

5. The Washington State I grew up in has changed dramatically. There are a couple

of white supremacist groups in Eastern Washington. East of the mountains has always been more conservative than over here on the West side, so the reference makes more sense with that in mind. Lots of really good people "over there", too - which is why Washington is always considered a Blue State. :)

Edit - spelling.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Yes, there are nutcases everywhere

And just because they're "more conservative" doesn't mean that they support racism. If you take the reference the same way I did, no, it doesn't make sense.

Believe me, ever since I moved to NY in the spring of 2007, I've learned more nasty names for racial and ethnic stereotypes than I ever heard in my 37 years in WA. The racial tensions in the blue states of the Northeast are so tight, you could cut them with a knife.

[gateley]

20. To be honest, I've never lived on the East side of the mountains, and the people

I know from there are good people, but it's kind of got that rep.

I was born, raised and except for 5 years in NC, have lived my entire life in Seattle.

[customerserviceguy]

22. Yes, but it's undeserved

This spring, take a trip over Snoqualmie Pass, and head for wine country. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you see.

Like I said above, when the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary was held, Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in all of the 39 counties, not just the ones up and down I-5. You wouldn't expect that from 'redneck' places such as you might imagine Eastern Washington to be. It didn't turn out that way in Pennsylvania, though.

[gateley]

28. You're right. I buy into that and I shouldn't. No excuse. There are rednecks and

white supremacists everywhere. Two groups does not mean the entire Eastern part of the state is teeming with racial hatred. I'll do that, and I'll send you a postcard! :hi:

[customerserviceguy]

29. Good deal!

Meet the people who grow your food. Sample their bounty, and know that they appreciate their customers.

I'm reminded of the days in the mid-1970's, when a local cartoon artist had his main character (Audio Daddy-O, I think it was) call everything east of the Cascades "a scary prairie". I bought into it, too, then befriended someone from Moses Lake. Took a trip out there in the dead of winter when my friend's mom died, and another one later in the year. You just couldn't find friendlier folks, they were pretty tolerant of my friend's 'hippie' boyfriend, too!

[Psephos]

24. "It's kind of got that rep."

That's a very good example of how stereotyping works.

Not directed at you, btw, but at that mindset.

[gateley]

27. True. Like "Idaho is full of Aryan groups", and others. I'm guilty of that - so thanks

for the reminder to knock it off! :hi:

[customerserviceguy]

30. The nutcases make news

The good folks just quietly make friends.

[Kennah]

7. Western Washington has it's share of oddballs and nutjobs ...

... and perhaps I've just experienced an undue number of Eastern Washington oddballs and nutjobs.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Come to anywhere in the country

and you'll see far worse than you see on either side of the mountains in WA. I'm sorry that you've encountered some less than savory characters, but were they really homicidal, or just a bit misinformed?

[Kennah]

10. I have some very normal and centrist to progressive friends who live east of the mountains ...

... but at the other end of things I've encountered a number of stereotypical teabaggers. If I didn't know better, I would swear they were cartoon characters painted on a canvas.

Spokane is blue streak, but get outside the Spokane Valley ...

[customerserviceguy]

12. I've toured Eastern Washington wine country

and I find people who are as progressive on racial matters as anybody in Seattle.

There is a "live and let live" attitude in the Northwest, and some reich-wing communities have taken advantage of that. They often have very little influence on the people they have situated themselves in the middle of.

The Rajneeshee community in Wasco County, Oregon comes to mind as such a case. While there was friction with the locals over a guru who started a commune in Eastern Oregon, the state pretty much left them alone, until they decided to put together a bioterrorist threat to gain political control of county government. "Live and let live" means "believe any damn fool thing you want, but when you start to screw with other people, we're not gonna let you get away with it."

If a white supremacist community is found to be behind the Spokane bomb, they're going to find themselves evicted real quick.

[freeplessinseattle]

13. they won't have far to go to get to white supremacist haven n/t

[customerserviceguy]

17. Don't expect them to get a welcome mat in the Idaho panhandle, either

While it is bizarre to believe that Caucasians are superior to other people on the planet, it is still considered a protected religious/political belief. Once you start acting on that belief by killing other people, it's no longer just some crazy fool thing in your head.

[gateley]

4. They could have gotten them in a local thrift store - somehow the idea of racists

participating in a Relay for Life and attending local theaters doesn't jibe, in my tiny mind anyway. :shrug:

[formercia]

9. The shirts might have been deliberately included as a diversion.

but then, my sig says otherwise.

[TheMadMonk]

16. The thought of an executioner going home to jam rolly polly and...

...a tickle session with the kids in front of the fire, is also hard to wrap your head around, and yet...

A kid with cancer could easily explain the first and church affiliation the theatre group. The t-shirts could also belong to a family member. The bloke could even be a former screaming liberal turned to the dark side by some personal event.

[james0tucson]

11. Pipe Bomb / IED

In the US, they call it a "pipe bomb." Outside the US, a "pipe bomb" is called "an IED."

I wish we could be consistent -- either stop elevating the weapons of the insurgency, or stop downplaying the equivalent weapons of domestic terrorists.

[greiner3]

15. I am a Liberal;

In thinking, attitude, voting and how I live my life. There are organizations that feel the correct name for how I feel needs to be changed to Progressive. Maybe the name will stick, however, I call myself Liberal. Change can be good but change for change sake is stupid.

I told that story so I can try to explain how I feel about your post. The US media has been awful slow to embrace the idea that anyone within the country can be terrorists unless they have the right skin color, speak the right language and practice a certain religion. The term 'pipe bomb' has been around a lot longer than the anagram 'IED.' I would say those who plant IEDs in other countries may not all be terrorists but considered patriots in their own countries who are just trying to fight a guerrilla war against invaders. As to pipe bombs vs. IEDs, I say the media is slowly coming around to reporting the acts of domestic terrorists. Whether they call a rose a rose (couldn't pass that one up) is a moot point and in other countries I would say they do not call IEDs by that name. I think one of the reasons the US media shies away from the term US domestic terrorism is they are afraid of copy cat bombings.

There is a volatility here and what spark might set off '2nd Amendment rights' can not be predicted. But the reality can be hypothesized and the thought is scary.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

14. This is my neck of the woods.

My husband and I did a lot of door belling and parades all over the 5th Congressional district and we discovered that there are some very scary people in Stevens County.

Stevens County attracts the right wing loonies. We were given some literature by fellow Democrats that came from some of these groups. There was a Posse Comitatus group that was supposed to be armed and ready for action and the John Birch people. Someone told me that they were coming up from the south to be among like minded people. It's been long time since we were up there so my memory is a bit rusty.

Here is something about some boys from Stevens County;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevie_Kehoe


Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers is loved by them and fits in well. Her family were John Birchers, among other things.

[barbiegeek]

18. could be a garage sale items as a decoy

[jmowreader]

25. Possible, and he wouldn't have had to go to a garage sale

There's a store in Spokane called Value Village. It's basically a Goodwill store that doesn't belong to the Goodwill organization. No one would even ask questions if this person went into Value Village and bought two t-shirts and a backpack.

[slackmaster]

19. So can we stop blaming Idaho now?

:shrug:

[customerserviceguy]

23. We should stop blaming rural people in general

especially in the Northwest. Yes, some loonies have moved into lightly inhabited places, and might make up a majority in a given census tract, but they're outsiders who really don't reflect the values of rural folks who have deep roots in the Northwest.

[Kurovski]

21. K&R. (nt)

[cilla4progress]

26. I moved to eastern Washington

from New England 30 years ago...central Washington, actually. I found it terribly racist and conservative - even militantly so. I have survived only through my comradeship with the Unitarian fellowship in town; various environmental and arts groups. I am now a State Committeewoman for our local Dem party (yipee!...). This area always votes Republican, but it is getting "safer" now to come out as a Dem and maybe even as a progressive. This is due to the work of some dedicated, talented individuals. We had 20+ people at the Dem caucus in our little rural town in '08.

At the same time, I think other areas of the country have backslid.

Anyway -- my 2 cents on the matter!