New York Aborted Bombing

[Luv2play]

I don't know if this thread belongs here but it is of national even international significance and few people here bother to read the Politics section. Anyway I think this was a situation that was just waiting to happen and I am sure local officials such as Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Patterson are very concerned about the impact this will have on tourism to NYC. Which is why they called a press conference at 2:30 in the morning after the incident.

 

The security response appears to have been good and officials seem to have controlled the situation well as far as I can determine at this point. Car bombs are not unknown in the US; Timothy McVey used one to devastating effect. But the thought that this could happen in the heart of Mahattan must be a chilling one to many and perhaps will affect their decisions about going to New York. The fact that it happened in the theatre district does not bode well.

 

One little fact that has emerged which surprised me is that the licence plates were from a car that had been junked at a yard. Here in Canada one has to retain the plates when one disposes of one's car. They go with the individual, not the car. They are switched from the last car to the next and are registered in your name indefinitely. Why is this not done in the US? Of course plates can be stolen but when they are, people usually notify the police that there plates are stolen. When they get junked with the car as in New York, they must be an attractive item to people who would be up to no good.

 

Just my early thoughts on this story, which I think is going to be a major one going forward.

[KMEM]

It is called taxes and revenue. Plates do wear out. Some significant percentage of the US population has been so highly mobile that new plates are issued frequently to new residents. Plates are issued by the state, not the feds. Not only plates but the whole car can be stolen and this is not an infrequent happening.

 

Wasn't McVey's bomb of choice a large truck loaded with chemical fertilizer? A bit different than 10 US gallons of gasoline.

 

Wasn't this an incident only? There was no explosion, was there?

 

I certainly don't wish to depend upon the ineptitude of would be terrorists entirely but there was NO chance the guy with the fruit of the boom underwear would be albe to explode it; he barely got it to almost burn.

 

So far, one (a tourist?) would be in far more danger walking down the wrong street or alley at 3 AM than from terrorists.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ Charlie]

Different states have different rules about license plates. In Pennsylvania, they stayed with the owner, but here in California, they go with the car, not with the owner. After I traded in my last car, I kept getting letters from a toll road authority threatening me for driving on the road without having paid the toll; I had to send them documentation to prove that I no longer owned the car on the dates when my license plate was photographed.

 

It looks like Lucky finished his NY theater week just in time, since the SUV was parked on the street with many of the shows he attended.

[+ ArVaGuy]

McVey's vehicle of choice was a Ryder-type rental truck. Loaded with chemical fertilizer as I recall. Part of the result of that incident was addition of more trace elements to each batch of fertilizer allowing the Feds to track exactly which company made the fertilizer, where it was distributed, and down to the purchase level.

Further, just about every rental vehicle these days has Lojack and GPS data recorders to allow the companies to track them if the renter fails to return on time. Law enforcement gets access to these records with little more than a cursory warrant if it’s necessary.

 

 

It is called taxes and revenue. Plates do wear out. Some significant percentage of the US population has been so highly mobile that new plates are issued frequently to new residents. Plates are issued by the state, not the feds. Not only plates but the whole car can be stolen and this is not an infrequent happening.

 

Wasn't McVey's bomb of choice a large truck loaded with chemical fertilizer? A bit different than 10 US gallons of gasoline.

 

Wasn't this an incident only? There was no explosion, was there?

 

I certainly don't wish to depend upon the ineptitude of would be terrorists entirely but there was NO chance the guy with the fruit of the boom underwear would be albe to explode it; he barely got it to almost burn.

 

So far, one (a tourist?) would be in far more danger walking down the wrong street or alley at 3 AM than from terrorists.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[+ Lucky]

‘Very Lucky,’ Mayor Says, After Bomb

 

 

See, I can be helpful!

[KMEM]

Is Lucky your last name with Very your given name? I don't wish to be confused about this in the future.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[Luv2play]

It is called taxes and revenue. Plates do wear out. Some significant percentage of the US population has been so highly mobile that new plates are issued frequently to new residents. Plates are issued by the state, not the feds. Not only plates but the whole car can be stolen and this is not an infrequent happening.

 

KMEM

 

Ensuring that the plates go with the owner of the plate and not the car does not affect revenues. You pay each year for using the plates as long as they are on a registered car on the road. In Canada the provinces are responsible as the states are in the USA. I am speaking for Ontario, the largest province. I have some 3 extra pairs of plates that I have owned over the years and they are still registered in my name. Recently I purchased a used SUV to use hauling stuff around and I resurrected plates that had last been on my old 1972 Oldsmobile covertible in 1991. The licensing bureau simply gave me a new sticker to attach.

 

And in my experience plates last longer than people and cars, unless the cars are in accidents. They generally don't rust and I still have the plates from my third car bought in 1975 and used for 16 years (the first two cars were under the old system when the plates went with the vehicle). And I live in a climate where salt is used extensively on the roads for 4 or 5 months of the year.

 

And as for stolen plates or cars, these are generally reported to the police who then know of their status. Sending plates to the junkyard is just asking for trouble, IMO.

[KMEM]

Perhaps the drivers in Ontario and Canada in general are much more careful than those here in the USA. Plates don't seem to last very long here. Perhaps we use inferior materials in the construction?

 

TN used to issue plates that were for the owner, not the car but they gave that up. Charlie in CA has mentioned some of the reasons why this might be so. Although in TN one can still transfer plates from one car to another but, why bother? There is a fee for doing so and unless one has by far most of the issued time remaining, it is a non-starter economically.

 

I think I must seriously consider moving to Canada. There, every thing is much better than here in the USA. After all you have free medical care. tags that do not expire, real free enterprise and so much more.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

 

BTW--The weather will be much better there also once global warming takes full effect.

[+ purplekow]

In NJ when you sell the car you have to return the plates to get new ones for another car. Like the lifetime plate idea. Will give inmates more free time so they dont have to be busy making the plates

[AdamSmith]

But the thought that this could happen in the heart of Mahattan must be a chilling one to many and perhaps will affect their decisions about going to New York. The fact that it happened in the theatre district does not bode well.

 

I was here in the Marriott Marquis Times Square and then out on the streets in the thick of this last night, and am still here today. Firsthand observation suggests your prognostication may be a little overwrought. Tourists here from all over who were part of this did not in general panic or anywhere near. Not to suggest naivete or indifference, only realistic perspective gained, perhaps, since 9/11.

 

Of course it could be that many who were not here will react as you say, especially given the media's commercial imperative to report these things as shrilly and sensationally as possible. But my observations of reactions on the ground were, to me, reassuring about people's ability to assess comparative risk. I worry more about pickpockets than about being blown up, given the odds.

[Luv2play]

I think I must seriously consider moving to Canada. There, every thing is much better than here in the USA. After all you have free medical care. tags that do not expire, real free enterprise and so much more.

 

Best regards,

KMEM

 

BTW--The weather will be much better there also once global warming takes full effect.

 

Well, the weather has been improving a lot recently. Today is around 75 degrees and sunny. Of course last week it snowed a bit. But no monsoon rains as in your neck of the woods and few if any tornados.

 

On the fiscal side, we do have higher taxes but that is balanced with more government services. And we're not going to pass on a huge debt to the next generation, in fact until the trouble that started on Wall Street and consumed most of the western world, we were paying down our national debt quite smartly.

 

And those tags have to be renewed every year with a little sticker with the month and year that one attaches, just like the Florida plates with which I am most familiar on the US side.

 

And our Bombardier Aircraft maker lives off government largess much as Boeing and the other US aeronautiical firms do through the defence work they get. And we get to bail out the Canadian operations of GM and Chrysler which are run in Detroit and where all the mistakes are made.

 

So yes, things are better in Canada, you just wouldn't know it from the comedians in Hollywood that make fun of us at every opportunity (which gratefully isn't too often).

[Guest greatness]

I saw that

 

too and thought of you.. Lucky is everywhere.. You really have to write a play titled Lucky~~

[AdamSmith]

Situation update: life continues as normal in Times Square. What passes for normal here, at any rate. Large, peaceably milling crowds, mood no different from usual. Somewhat more visible police presence than normal.

 

The only thing I saw approaching high emotional heat were the multiple news trucks whose reporters were energetically seeking to push-poll interviewees on the street into expressing their terror, alarm, etc. Unfortunately for the TV stations, they seemed to be having a hard time finding those reactions.

[BewareofNick]

Once again, thanks to President Obama for keeping us safe.

[KMEM]

Once again, thanks to President Obama for keeping us safe.

 

Where is the happy face to show that you are kidding? No one and no thing can keep anyone "safe".

 

Best regards,

 

KMEM

[Luv2play]

I think the credit rightfully goes to that handsome mounted patrolman Rattigan for keeping everyone safe. I could see him in a scalet tunic too of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

[Guest greatness]

I know

 

He is so cute~~~

[+ ArVaGuy]

Once again, thanks to President Obama for keeping us safe.

 

Oh what an asinine statement.

 

We have an ordinary citizen to thank for preventing this terrorist act. It was a street vendor who noticed something out of place and called police. That man, along with the first responding police officers, are the heroes here.

[+ Lucky]

But the federal government did provide NYC with the funds to saturate Times Square with cops...except when they were giving the money to Idaho and Wyoming and other podunk places a respectable terrorist wouldn't bother with.

[Luv2play]

But the federal government did provide NYC with the funds to saturate Times Square with cops...except when they were giving the money to Idaho and Wyoming and other podunk places a respectable terrorist wouldn't bother with.

 

Oklahoma City? Maybe Timothy McVeigh wasn't respectable but what terrorist is?

[MsGuy]

Speaking of podunk places...

 

But the federal government did provide NYC with the funds ...except when they were giving the money to Idaho and Wyoming and other podunk places.

 

My home town spent last year's terrorist money on 4 segway scooters. If they attack on foot, we'll have them surrounded in no time. Meantime the part time cop who checks around downtown at night to make sure all the doors are locked finishes up in half the time he used to take.

 

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:n6pX2CRO2uY32M:http://www.tradenote.net/images/users/000/237/077/products_images/Segway_Human_Transporter__Ht__I_Series.jpg

----

Seems like you should thank the incompetance of the bomber rather than the vendor or the cop. The bomb trigger fired, it just failed to set off the gasoline or the propane bottles. If one of those containers had cooked off, it wouldn't have been pretty.

[+ Lucky]

I'd rather they bought Segways than spent the money on Big brother stuff like this:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/nyregion/03security.html?ref=nyregion

[KMEM]

Who thinks up this stuff? What could be more suspicious than a car in Manhattan circling looking for a parking spot? Seems like I read somewhere there are 8 million cars that come into Manhattan every day and 7 million parking spots. We definitely need MORE Big Brother, don't we ?

 

Best regards,

KMEM