This is unusual: the illustrious Markos Moulitsos Zuniga has been showing up on my Referrers list. He (or to be precise, a “Dave Johnson” from another site, quoted at Kos) is making fun of all of us silly anti-jihad sites for taking note of the Saudi bus story.
The Kos original is filled with links to various anti-jihad sites. Jihad Watch is linked at “OH MY GOD!!!!” I think that’s somewhat ironic, given that there is nothing hysterical or ranting about my original post. I just asked a few questions. Here is what I said:
I think it’s plausible that someone who doesn’t know America very well might mistake a school bus for a public bus. But why was one of them wearing a trench coat, in May, in Tampa, Florida? Why did they keep changing their story about why they wanted to go to the school? And why did they originally say they were from Morocco instead of admitting they were Saudis? And why has their bail been revoked (which detail comes from the Rottweiler, not the Trib story) if this were just a case of boarding the wrong bus?
And here’s Kos:
OH MY GOD!
by davej
Sun May 21, 2006 at 12:48:07 PM PDTYou’re just notgoing to believe this outrage!!! Two men got on a school bus!!!!! This is just incredible!!!!!
OH MY GOD!!!!
[…]
It’s a good thing the sentries are on duty, keeping watch to guard and protect us!!!!!!!!!
Imagine the widespread alarm and outrage that we would see all over the right-wing blogosphere if they looked like Timothy McVeigh!!!!!!!!!!!
Ooooh, that McVeigh ref really hurts, Dave. Yes, it’s all about racism. It’s racism that makes me suspicious when two men well past high school age get on a high school bus. It’s racism that makes me wonder why one of them was wearing a trench coat in May in Florida. It’s racism that makes me wonder why they lied about where they were from, and why they gave three different stories about why they boarded the bus, and why they were arrested and their bail revoked instead of being sent off with a handy explanation of how to distinguish a public bus from a school bus.
By dragging in McVeigh, the Left’s all-purpose Christian terrorist (even though he was an avowed atheist at the time of his terrorist acts), Dave (and Kos) are trying to drive home exactly that point: that we wouldn’t be concerned if these had been a couple of white Christians on the bus, and to be concerned about it is anti-Arab or anti-Muslim.
Wrong on both counts. I would be concerned if anyone, white or black or red or green, boarded a school bus he had no business riding and behaved the way these two Saudi men behaved. And to dismiss concern about it as racism is dangerously short-sighted — after all, can Dave or Kos guarantee that it is impossible that two mujahedin might try to cause some mayhem on a school bus or in a school? Of course they can’t. Can they guarantee that there are no mujahedin in the United States who would very much like to cause that mayhem? Of course they can’t.
And this is how we could very well end up with another catastrophic attack on American soil sometime in the future, or more than one: the we will all be so concerned about not appearing racist or bigoted that we will be afraid to raise legitimate concerns — for fear of drawing the ire of Kos and his minions, or people who share their point of view. In fact, all too many people in media and law enforcement are in precisely that position today.
Well, bring it on, Markos. Until you can show me evidence proving that there are no mujahedin plotting anything in the U.S., I am going to continue to raise questions — not jump to conclusions, but raise questions — about stories like this. With no apologies, and no retreats.