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Over the last couple weeks the Occupy Wall Street protest down in the Financial District has generated a lot of attention. But the numbers have been pretty small — a core of just a few hundred people. But that looks set to change with pledges of support and involvement from several of New York’s biggest labor unions and community groups.
After yesterday’s arrest, we wanted to find out: how much damage could a would-be terrorist do with a model airplane carrying plastic explosives flying into the Capitol building or the Pentagon? Here’s what we found out?
[ed.note: Personal geek confession. When we first reported this story yesterday our reporter on the case wasn’t aware of the subculture of model and RC plane enthusiasts who have big, big model planes. Not the little things you might see kids flying around but planes that are 5, 6, 7 or even 8 feet long. In other words, these are almost more like bonzai real planes than the model airplanes most people think of. So he didn’t; but I did. So yeah, when I was a kid I would marvel at these big planes even though I didn’t have the money to get one or anywhere to fly one. I confess I barely got past the rubberband propulsion stage. But this planes are even more hardcore. Most of the ones I knew about from back in the day were still driving by props, exposed propellors. But the planes Rezwan Ferdaus wanted to use in his plot seem to have used fan jets and could reach speeds of more than 150 mph. Which is scary from a counter-terrorism point of view but I must confess from a modeling point of view somewhat awesome.]
Illinois Rep. tells crowd at Tea Party rally that ‘conceal & carry’ gun laws are “last line of defense” against big government.
He seems to be of the Sharron Angle “second amendment remedies” school of civic engagement.
Okay, back to the issue of big, precision remote control model aircraft. TPM Reader WW sends in a video of just one example of these things. This is a model SR-71 Air Force reconnaissance jet that looks to be maybe 70 or 80 inches long. (You’ll recognize the silhouette.) Video after the jump. If you haven’t seen something like this before it’ll kind of blow your mind. Read More
The Chris Christie rumormill has been crazy over recent weeks. But the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the big in-state paper in New Jersey, went up with a story tonight with a source close to the governor who says he’s now leaning toward running.
DOJ Inspector General admits the $16 muffin story was bogus.
Second American reportedly killed in the strike on al-Awlaki.
Warren Buffett p***ing all over the “Buffett Rule” on CNBC.
Late Update: Scratch that. Initial reports way overstated what Buffett said. We’ll have a complete report shortly.
Later Update: Rewatching the video, it’s kind of unbelievable how much Buffett’s comments were overplayed. He still likes his own proposal, he’s fine with the White House attaching his name to its proposal (they called in advance and he agreed), he might quibble with some of the details, including what the minimum income cutoff should be, but he’s reserving judgment on that until he sees the entire proposal. Video soon …
Last Update: Our report here.