Althouse: "He's not a suicide bomber, he's a patriot."

April 15, 2015

"He's not a suicide bomber, he's a patriot."

"I didn't want to get all of D.C. in an uproar and it turn out he was just practicing or something or he was just pulling my leg."

42 comments:

Bob Ellison said...: "Tags: protest, stupid" seems endemic these days.; 4/15/15, 2:39 PM
clint said...: You couldn't pay me enough to be in charge of a prominent figure's security detail these days.

People are jumping the fence and getting into the White House, landing gyrocopters on the Capital.

And Congressional security details are coordinating with Code Pink to let them disrupt hearings "just a little" before shutting them down.

How long before some politician gets a silly pie in the face, only to learn later that the pie was poisoned, or a water balloon full of acid or something?; 4/15/15, 2:47 PM
West Town said...: "or a water balloon full of acid or something?"

Acid may actually take their delusions down a notch.; 4/15/15, 3:02 PM
Louis said...: A balloon full of acid would be hundreds of thousands of dollars.; 4/15/15, 3:16 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Goddammit! I live here & I'm so tired off all these stupid, incompetent bureaucrats who can't seem to do the basic jobs they were hired to do!

The airspace over the District is restricted air space. How did this clown get over the Capitol with no warning bells going off? Does no one actually monitor District airspace?

The WH Secret Service used to have shoulder-fired SAMs. Do they still? Did the Capitol police ever have them? Are there no snipers on duty?

And, yet again, the authorities were warned! But, the SS must be too busy driving drunk or fucking whores to bother to tell anyone down at the Capitol Police that they had received a credible warning of an "attack" from the air. We beyond firing SS agents & management. We're at the point where they need to be taken out & shot pour encourager les autres.

This time it was some poor sap pissed off about campaign finance laws. Next time, it'll be a jihadi with a gyrocopter full of dynamite or plastic explosives.; 4/15/15, 3:21 PM
Bob R said...: Went to a Steve Earl concert once, and as he strummed a relatively large, eight-stringed instrument he said, when going through airport security, this isn't a bouzouki, it's a baritone mandolin. When you have less sense than Steve Earl, you deserve the "stupid" tag.; 4/15/15, 3:30 PM
Michael K said...: "Richard Burns, 27, who said he works for a marijuana lobby group in Washington, stood in wonder and solidarity.

"I don't know whatever it was he was doing but I support him."

Another lefty nut. The MSM must be getting frustrated that all the nuts have been Obama supporters for the past decade.

A water balloon full of acid would be cheap. Battery acid would do nicely.; 4/15/15, 3:38 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Top Men.; 4/15/15, 3:47 PM
Beach Brutus said...: As my old gas station boss would say; "That boy is eat up with the dumb-ass. Like a dog with the mange, no shot will inoculate him for it, and no shampoo will wash it off. He's just eat up with the dumb-ass and that's just how it is."; 4/15/15, 4:10 PM
damikesc said...: The Secret Service has taken a massive beating in terms of the appearance of competence under Obama.

This puts Presidential lives way more at risk.; 4/15/15, 4:16 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Went to a Steve Earl concert once, and as he strummed a relatively large, eight-stringed instrument he said, when going through airport security, this isn't a bouzouki, it's a baritone mandolin.

You must not be a very big fan of Steve Earle, otherwise you would know how to spell his name. And contending that Steve Earle has little sense is rich considering you didn't get the joke.; 4/15/15, 4:38 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Bob probably just calls him Steve Earl for short.; 4/15/15, 5:15 PM
Bob Boyd said...: Something for Shirley Abrahamson to think about....if the lawsuit thing doesn't work out.; 4/15/15, 5:26 PM
sdharms said...: I don't care what lands on the lawn. But if that guy thinks campaign finance reform is the biggest problem we have (like Hillary does) I am buying tin foil futures; 4/15/15, 5:50 PM
Anonymous said...: YoungHegelian said...
The airspace over the District is restricted air space. How did this clown get over the Capitol with no warning bells going off? Does no one actually monitor District airspace?

By flying low and slow.

BTW: The FAA can't actually see planes in the air with its RADAR. What FAA RADAR does is interrogate the transponders on planes that report their codes. If you highjack a plane and turn off the transponder, it becomes invisible to the FAA.

Military RADARs are much more powerful. The Navy AEGIS RADAR on high beam can make you sterile. J/K. Anyway, Mil RADARs bounce the signal off the plane (Paint the skin). Mil RADARs don't depend on planes wanting to be found...

Almost no airspace inside the US is covered by Mil RADAR. I suspect, but don't know that Andrews AF Base runs a RADAR watch, but the guy was coming in low from the opposite direction...; 4/15/15, 6:29 PM
Hagar said...: Remember when a West-German kid flew a Cessna 150 to Moscow and landed on the Red Square?; 4/15/15, 6:55 PM
Etienne said...: A country has to be willing to take a body count.

100% security is un-affordable. When people die, pay the enemy back and kill them 100:1. It's the only way forward.

The media is stupid on this issue, don't listen to those cowards.; 4/15/15, 7:33 PM
Etienne said...: The DC restricted area has multiple radars. They can see transponder equipped and radar only.

The problem is, if you come in hugging the terrain, the radar can't really track you well. If you follow the roads, it may think you're just an auto.

Which is why they are building an Aerostat that will look down, and track even cruise missiles.; 4/15/15, 7:37 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/15/15, 7:41 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Seems like a really elaborate way to jump the Capitol fence.

Not sure how much of a security breach this was. A vehicle this slow with so little cargo room isn't much of a threat. If it's a real problem, put a .50 cal on the Capitol roof.; 4/15/15, 7:44 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Don't need radar to deal with this, just eyes. Some people with binoculars could have seen it coming.; 4/15/15, 7:45 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Drill/Coupe,

Thank you gentlemen for the explanations.

In any case, all it took was one schmuck of a soon to be ex-USPS worker & his "hobby helicopter" to show the whole world how to easy it is to bypass the whole lot & land unmolested at the Federal building of one's choice.

One of these days, we're going to get smacked, and smacked good & hard. Sadly, I expect if & when the smackdown comes to DC, some of the victims will be me & mine.; 4/15/15, 7:46 PM
mccullough said...: Reminds me of Little Nellie in You Only Live Twice; 4/15/15, 7:54 PM
J2 said...: What a fantastic story. It would make a great screenplay.; 4/15/15, 8:01 PM
John henry said...: As someone noted, a gyrocopter flies slow, around 40mph or maye less. Following the roads, even with look down radar, it will just look like a car.

It is ultralight which means it has a structure similar to a lawn chair. To radar, it might not even return as much signal as a radar.

It is painted with USPS colors and the USPS logo on the back. Anyone on the ground seeing it, even law enforecment, would likely think "Cool. PO is using drones to carry the mail now."

Carrying load of the gyrocopter is probably 300#, perhaps a bit more. With a 200# pilot, that would leave 110# for dynamite

I seem to remember a Tom Clancy(?) novel where the agents were infiltrated, at night, using an ultralight, similar to the gyro, that flew about 50' above traffic matching traffic speed.

Basically, there was not enough for radar to pick up and what they did, since it was close to the road and road speed, just looked like another car. Since the road was heavily trafficed, it could not be picked out of the noise.

John Henry; 4/15/15, 8:08 PM
rhhardin said...: Gyrocopters don't have a great safety record, which is ironic because they're pretty simple.; 4/15/15, 8:33 PM
rhhardin said...: You can't spell overreaction with ovaries.; 4/15/15, 8:34 PM
Bob R said...: "Bob probably just calls him Steve Earl for short." Very generous, but the fact is that I'm one of the world's worst spellers.

As far as Steve's bad sense, if the silly politics and the jail time don't do it for you, there is the fact that he spent all that time hanging out with Van Zandt. At the very least, that means that whatever good sense he had was overwhelmed by good musical taste.; 4/15/15, 8:38 PM
Anonymous said...: If it's a real problem, put a .50 cal on the Capitol roof.

A. it's not easy to hit a moving target with a M-2 50 cal.

B. On the Capital roof, first off the Dome is in the way, so you'd need 3-4 poistions to get 360 coverage. 2 people each. you going mn them 24/7 365? that's 40 folks standing around for years.

C. From rthe roof, they would be firing down at this guy today. you gonna spray the mall with 59 Cal? or Rosslyn Highrises? That will get both noisy and expensive.

LOL, cut your labor costs, if not your PR costs, install Phalanx :); 4/15/15, 9:04 PM
David said...: He did something illegal to draw attention to a political issue that he cares about.

Under the present campaign law arrangement, that's pretty much what any of us risks doing if we publish a political ad during a federal campaign without the advice of a $500/hour lawyer.; 4/15/15, 9:51 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This kid landed at Red Square; 4/15/15, 9:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Char Char Binks said...
Bob probably just calls him Steve Earl for short.

******

Actually, they often call him Speedo, but his real name is Mister Earl....; 4/15/15, 10:05 PM
Largo said...: He is certainly not a suicide bomber.; 4/16/15, 4:28 AM
tim maguire said...: For years he's been telling everyone who would listen that he was going to do this. And then he does it and security services are caught flatfooted.

How much do we pay for this stuff? And why?

Personally, I think there's something wrong with us as a society if we think this is a big deal. But there's definitely something wrong with our security services that they do think it's a big deal and yet, despite the vast fortunes we lavish on them, they were still taken by surprise.; 4/16/15, 6:46 AM
Larry J said...: Hagar said...
Remember when a West-German kid flew a Cessna 150 to Moscow and landed on the Red Square?

Actually, it was a Cessna 172. At the time, I proposed it as an alternative to the B-1 bomber due to its proven ability to penetrate Soviet airspace.

The Drill SGT said...

LOL, cut your labor costs, if not your PR costs, install Phalanx :)

There are already Avengers stationed in DC for just this job. Someone was asleep at the switch or the decision-making process chain was too slow to respond to a very slow-flying aircraft.; 4/16/15, 6:48 AM
Phil 314 said...: Now he can appear on Celebrity Apprentice someday (or maybe Dancing with the Stars); 4/16/15, 8:01 AM
Freder Frederson said...: He landed on the lawn of the Capitol, which although is in restricted air space is open to the public and close to public streets. If someone wanted to damage the Capitol, they could get to the same place on foot or by vehicle with a hell of a lot more ordnance than you could carry on a gyrocopter.; 4/16/15, 8:06 AM
Christopher said...: BTW: The FAA can't actually see planes in the air with its RADAR. What FAA RADAR does is interrogate the transponders on planes that report their codes. If you highjack a plane and turn off the transponder, it becomes invisible to the FAA.

Yeah, almost none of that is true, and the information available doens't have much to do with the "power" of the radar.

The FAA and the military both have primary and secondary radar (and now ADS-B but that's a different story).

Secondary surveillance radar or SSR does indeed interrogate transponders, generating lots of handy information. But turning off your transponder doesn't make you disappear off the air traffic controller screens. Primary surveillance radar (PSR) will indicate your location and bearing but not your altitude very well unless you're really close.

But yeah FAA radar is not tuned for gyrocopters flying at 300 feet and 40 mph.; 4/16/15, 8:35 AM
Deja Voodoo said...: John Henry
4/15/15, 8:08 PM:
As someone noted, a gyrocopter flies slow, around 40mph or maye less.
Commercialy available ready-to-fly autogyros can reach 80 mph. Competetive models excede 100, the world record (2002) is 130.; 4/16/15, 9:18 AM
Wilbur said...: When a toddler thinks no one is paying attention or listening to him, he may scream, stamp his feet, roll on the ground or break something.

How is this different?

Or blocking traffic for hours?

LISTEN TO ME!!!!!!!; 4/16/15, 12:22 PM
Etienne said...: At least he didn't "Go Postal"...; 4/16/15, 2:19 PM
Etienne said...: The best way to defeat any air defense system, is to fly along the highways at the speed of traffic, or slower.

The reason is, radars have to map-out ground clutter. They often do this by simply blanking radar returns over the highways.

Also, for other areas, the Doppler shift (velocity) is mapped-out below a certain speed.

These are automated radars, so without this, they would generate hundreds of tracks from vehicles and birds, and overload the computers and controllers.

Radar is old technology. The obvious path to the future will be video based. By putting a series of cameras around the target area, they can use visual and infrared to detect missiles, drones, and aircraft at low levels. Also use lasers for range finding at each site.

I can do this for a Billion dollars, if Congress will give me a contract. I need a Billion, because obviously some pay-offs will be required.; 4/16/15, 2:31 PM