Why would you give infowars a press pass?

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

I hope they figure out how this happen. Personally, at this moment in time, I think that's more important than why it happened.

The only thing about "how" that I know is it was supposedly gunpowder and shrapnel in a pressure cooker, hidden in a backpack. I'm not sure if that was both bombs or just one of them. Linky. Here's a nice summary/list of what's known.

Well I mean how he got the bombs into the building, where he bought them, how he got past security and people seemingly undetected. How long were the bombs in the building? When did this plan start? Etc.

Well I mean how he got the bombs into the building, where he bought them, how he got past security and people seemingly undetected. How long were the bombs in the building? When did this plan start? Etc.

From the link posted above:

• The devices were in trash cans on the street, which is very different from inside a building.
• The devices were pressure cooker bombs, which are easily home-built, from off-the-shelf components.
• Two explosives sweeps were made earlier in the day, so the devices were likely planted shortly before detonation.

That all adds up to being nearly impossible to trace. Unless they get inordinately lucky, and see the devices being planted on a CCTV camera, it's going to be a complex investigation...

Oddly enough, it seems a suspect is being investigated. It seems he was caught on security cameras in a department store.

Source.

Media is reporting that they've made an arrest based on a person identified by two pieces of video. We'll see who it is.

As for what I said about making a big show of the foreign angle, but trending to right-wing/conservative/patriot/gun-nut, that's still my bet how this plays out. If you paid attention to media reports since the start of this, they started off as "This is terrorism" which is implicitly foreign in most people's minds, then they started saying "It could be foreign or domestic" and people started playing up the possibility of a domestic act, and then I noticed a few reports that were saying "it could be domestic or foreign", flipping the order even though its not really idiomatic speech to do so.

Someone's going to push an agenda regardless -- if its a foreigner it'll be used to push stricter borders and tighter immigration -- if its a white guy it'll be used to push gun control and to openly make the "patriot movement" a target of investigation in general. I'm hardly clairvoyant, I just see the two ways this can go and picked the side that things seem to trend towards.

Harry Reid quietly flipped his stance on Feinstein's AWB this morning too, saying now that he would support it because he finds the argument that the purpose of an armed populous is to be able to resist tyranny is "ridiculous", even though that's the explicit, stated, intent of the 2nd amendment. Honestly, I think he's already been briefed on who the suspect is, and is comfortable flipping because he knows that public sentiment is going to be on his side very soon.

[EDIT] And now they say no arrest has been made yet, but I'll stand by what I've said.

Someone's going to push an agenda regardless -- if its a foreigner it'll be used to push stricter borders and tighter immigration -- if its a white guy it'll be used to push gun control and to openly make the "patriot movement" a target of investigation in general. I'm hardly clairvoyant, I just see the two ways this can go and picked the side that things seem to trend towards.

So how white do you think he's gonna be?

Something tells me polar bear white.

He'll be white, right-wing, have a grudge with the government, have a problem with Obama in particular, be pro-second amendment, anti-abortion probably -- You know, basically a caricature of an extremist republican or tea partier.

And in reply to ChaosEngine, I'm neither joking nor stupid. I'm certainly not ready to jump to false-flag, but you have to admit that if it turns out the way I'm predicting it will, that it would be more than a little convenient for the current political climate, don't you think? I mean, lone, right-wing nutter detonates crude explosives at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, on "patriots day", when Oath Keepers (a pro-2A group) are in town? That such an individual would target innocent people at the marathon, rather than any of the federal buildings in Boston, or the surrounding area? Even as crazy as he would have to be, completely unaware that his actions would have the exact opposite affect on his politics as he would intend?

Could that turn out to be the facts of the case? Sure. But that's really unlikely, and deserving of suspicion if it comes to be the allegation.

He'll be white, right-wing, have a grudge with the government, have a problem with Obama in particular, be pro-second amendment, anti-abortion probably -- You know, basically a caricature of an extremist republican or tea partier.

Such people do exist. They are not merely caricatures. They may not be representative of the average tea partier or republican, but they are certainly not some right-wing boogeyman made up to scare liberals.

And in reply to ChaosEngine, I'm neither joking nor stupid. I'm certainly not ready to jump to false-flag, but you have to admit that if it turns out the way I'm predicting it will, that it would be more than a little convenient for the current political climate, don't you think? I mean, lone, right-wing nutter detonates crude explosives at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, on "patriots day", when Oath Keepers (a pro-2A group) are in town? That such an individual would target innocent people at the marathon, rather than any of the federal buildings in Boston, or the surrounding area? Even as crazy as he would have to be, completely unaware that his actions would have the exact opposite affect on his politics as he would intend?

I don't know who did this or why. I find it odd that (as Hodgman mentioned) whoever was responsible hasn't tried to own it in any way.

But as more evidence is revealed, the whole thing seems kinda amateurish. Exactly the kind of thing a lone nut job would do.

Could that turn out to be the facts of the case? Sure. But that's really unlikely, and deserving of suspicion if it comes to be the allegation.

Why is it unlikely? More to the point, why is it more unlikely than the alternative?

I'm going to stick with Occam's Razor here. If the blame falls on a "lone, right-wing nutter", it seems eminently more plausible that they actually did it than that the government is framing them to suit their own agenda.

I'm not saying that a lone wolf of any stripe is even implausible, I'm saying that a lone, right-wing nutter that would exactly play into the current political grab, despite the fact that it would completely undermine his own political views on the face of it, targeting innocents at a public event rather than any other "legitimate target" in an area rife with them, is at the very least cause for suspicion. I mean, what are the odds that an already extremely unlikely event would occur in exactly the right way, and in exactly the right time to be leveraged most effectively?

Occam's Razor is good and all, but it should be viewed as a tool to guide investigation, not as a means to draw a conclusion -- it says where to look first, not where to stop looking.

If it turns out to be just some run-of-the-mill crazy person that thinks Google is stealing his thoughts, then I'll be happy to be wrong. If I'm right, it honestly wouldn't even matter whether it was some kind of unlikely frame-up, because the result will be the same -- make more people suspect, make more people criminals, turn the screws a little tighter -- after all, its for the greater good.

And before there's any misinterpretation, I'm not at all a left or right-wing anything myself. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, though I take all my news with a grain of salt and from many sources. I'll involve myself with political issues, but not political parties, and I've never voted a straight ticket. There are good, bad, and ugly people on both sides of the aisle.

I mean, what are the odds that an already extremely unlikely event would occur in exactly the right way, and in exactly the right time to be leveraged most effectively?

Pretty high since according to conspiracy nuts every day since the begging of time is the perfect time for a conspiracy to happen.