Two blasts have gone off during morning rush hour in Moscow's underground subways, killing dozens of morning commuters. Via RT.com:

The first explosion happened in a carriage at the central Lubyanka underground station and has claimed the lives of 26 people, with more injured, informs RIA Novosti news agency.

The second blast happened at the Park Kultury Metro station in the third carriage of a train. 15 or more people are reported to be dead, the quantity of injured is unknown.

According to Russia’s Emergency Ministry, the first explosion presumably happened in the second carriage of a Metro train stopped at the Lubyanka station in the very center of Moscow, only several hundred meters from the Kremlin. At 9:30am Moscow time, the Emergencies Ministry gave the number of casualties as 20 to 25 killed and 17 wounded on Lubyanka station, and 12 to 15 killed and over 20 wounded at Park Kultury station.

Officials are investigating the possibility of suicide bombers and/or a coordinated terrorist attack. The video has some stunning photos and video taken by eyewitness and people in close proximity. On a Monday morning rush-hour commute, there's a high likelihood that many more have died than initially reported.

Telegraph.co.uk reports:

Though it has yet to be confirmed, security sources said early indications suggested suspected suicide bombers from the volatile North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya were to blame.

If that is right, it would be the first time since 2004 that they have struck the Moscow metro. Prosecutors opened a criminal case immediately, saying they would be working on the basis that the explosions were the work of terrorists.

Reporters are updating at RT.com as more information is known. Other sources: MSNBC, CNN

Update #1: Video shot of the scene above ground.

Update #2: CBS News now quotes Moscow mayor as attributing both blasts to female suicide bombers.

Update #3: Via STRATFOR:

According to STRATFOR sources in Moscow, the two locations of the attacks on the subway in the city are symbolic. The first attack in Park Kultury is symbolic in that it is one of the city’s cultural centers being located near Gorky Park. The second location of the attack at the metro station of Lubyanka is nearly under the Federal Security Bureau’s headquarters—former KGB headquarters—the security hub of Russia. According to media reports, the attacks were caused by suicide bombers at the peak of rush hour in Moscow. Thus far, rumors are flying that Muslim extremists are responsible for the attack. In the past, there have typically been spring-summer attacks in Moscow in February, and spring is just now arriving in the capital.

Rep. Steve King really can relate to Joseph Stack's attack of the IRS building in Austin because he too was audited. A Media Matters staffer told TPM that King made these outrageous statements about the suicide plane attack at CPAC, Saturday night:

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a crowd at CPAC on Saturday that he could "empathize" with the suicide bomber who last week attacked an IRS office in Austin, and encouraged his listeners to "implode" other IRS offices, according to a witness.

King's comments weren't recorded, but a staffer for Media Matters, who heard the comments, provided TPMmuckraker with an account.

The staffer, who requested anonymity because she's not a communications specialist, said that King, an extreme right-winger with a reputation for eyebrow-raising rhetoric, appeared as a surprise guest speaker on an immigration panel at the conservative conference. During his closing remarks, King veered into a complaint about high taxes, and said he could "empathize" with the man who flew a plane into an IRS building last week

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This is a man that is supposed to serve and protect America. He's a Congressman for God's sake.

Think Progress caught up with him later on and this is what he said.

TP: Do you think this attack, this terrorist attack, was motivated at all by a lot of the anti-tax rhetoric that’s popular in America right now?

KING: I think if we’d abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn’t have a target for his airplane. And I’m still for abolishing the IRS, I’ve been for it for thirty years and I’m for a national sales tax. [...] It’s sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary and when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it’s going to be a happy day for America.

TP: So some of his grievances were legitimate?

KING: I don’t know if his grievances were legitimate, I’ve read part of the material. I can tell you I’ve been audited by the IRS and I’ve had the sense of ‘why is the IRS in my kitchen.’ Why do they have their thumb in the middle of my back. … It is intrusive and we can do a better job without them entirely.

These are the people that will be holding hearings on Capitol Hill if the House goes back toe the republicans. You can bet on it. The treatment ACORN received when they weren't in power is a prelude on things to come. People who don't mind nut-jobs from killing Americans like suicide bombers.

Michele "miss me yet?" Bachmann would actually be in a position of power too...

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Get ready for Abu Ghraib Redux:

[N]ow a new batch of photographs, perhaps hundreds of images, of prisoners being abused is about to be made public. It comes at a time when the debate over prisoner mistreatment is still roiling America's political and public conscience. The new photographs are being made public in a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union. And the Pentagon, after fighting, and losing, three federal court reviews of the matter, has waved the white flag and is now preparing to release the pictures. Some of the photographs are official; some, like the original Abu Ghraib collection, taken informally by soldiers. "We know this could make things tougher for our troops," a senior Pentagon official says, "but the court decisions really don't leave us with any other option."

Fox's Shepard Smith and Catherine Herridge presented the Fox version of this story yesterday, reporting that May 28 is the date set for the release of at least some of the photos. Herridge says that someone who's seen them told her none of them are as bad as the Abu Ghraib shots, but about 44 of them could be very ugly indeed.

And there's this note:

Smith: Some of the critics are really labeling this 'Abu Ghraib Part II.'

Herridge: Well, you remember that after Abu Ghraib there was worldwide condemnation for these images of humiliation. And I learned in my research today that there was also a military report in 2008 that concluded that there is a connection between these images and also suicide bombers. Forty-eight bombers, or potential bombers, were interviewed, and they said that these images were a big factor, a big motivating factor, in the decision to become a suicide bomber.

This in fact comports with that 2006 National Intelligence Estimate [PDF file] that found that Bush's war in Iraq had actually created the conditions for a future ripe with terrorist attacks; or, as the New York Times put it, "helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism." Among the real motivators for terrorist recruitment, it found, was the torture regime the Bush administration set up in places like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

If anyone thought that photos from those centers would not eventually leak out to the public -- or at the bare minimum, be forced out eventually by the inevitable lawsuits, as was the case here -- they were fooling themselves. Or at least gambling that they'd be out of office by then and could lay the whole mess in the laps of whoever had the misfortune to succeed them.

Indeed, the Obama critics are now out in force shouting that the pending release of these photos will hurt soldiers in the field, including Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Bill Kristol is claiming that "this would be a gratuitous assault on the well-being and the reputation of our fighting men and women."

But of course, they can't answer the cold fact that these photos are a product of the Bush administration's misbegotten policies, and the reaction to them from the Arab world -- indeed, the rest of the world -- puts the lie to Dick Cheney's claim that "enhanced interrogations" kept us safe.

In fact, over the long run, they have made us quantifiably less safe. And cleaning out this festering wound once and for all is the only hope we have of healing it.

Continue reading »

 Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he didn't want Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to face a confirmation hearing so he let him go. Surprisingly--Barbara Starr reported that this is an unusual move because Pace's job is supposed to be Bush's call and not Gates.

Gates: It would be a backward looking and very contentious process.

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A reporter asks Gates if he's depressed by this move. It's very telling to see that a major man in the military is ousted because the administration (was this Gates decision alone?) doesn't want him to answer question about the Iraq war in front of Congress. Do you remember his take on gays serving in the military...  He also wrote a letter of support for Scooter Libby...How's that surge working?

Two suicide bombers struck a Shiite mosque and a nearby police station near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, and more than 25 people were killed or wounded, police said

Republican Peter King is a total embarrassment to NY. Growing up there I cringe every time he spouts his nonsense and this ladies and gentlemen is complete idiocy that demeans our troops in Iraq and everybody that has any semblance of intelligence in our country,

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King: Conditions on the ground are different than what you see on television.---As we go through the city of Baghdad, it was like being in Manhattan. I’m talking about bumper to bumper traffic. Talking about shopping centers, talking about restaurants, talking about video stores, talking about guys--on the street corner, talking about major hotels. And so, at that moment, people must be amazingly resilient and you would never know that there was a war going on...

...in Mosul---I remember seeing news reports about roller coasters. Where you had two or three parking lots filled with their cars on a Sunday afternoon. Again, that’s not something you’d see on television, and at any given time a suicide bombers can walk into an amusement center, but the point I’m making is that the situation is more stable than you think....

Let's all book our flights to the joyous and refreshingly amusing--Mosul. OK, suicide bombers can go off at anytime, but the sun is still shining for King. He says as long as the Iraq forces keep training then maybe two, three or four years we will draw down. Way to go Peter! He made this speech in the Merrick Jewish Center. I played many a gig out in Nassau County.

Suicide Bomber Kills 12 in Attack on Iraqi Police

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber plowed into policemen waiting to collect their salaries at a police station west of Ramadi Monday, killing 12 people in the latest insurgent attack on Iraq (news - web sites)'s beleaguered security forces. At least 10 people were wounded in the blast, and 90 percent of the casualties were policemen, said Nazar al-Hiti, a doctor in the town of Hit around 125 miles west of Baghdad, where the dead and wounded were taken.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. patrol went past, killing two American soldiers and wounding three. Thirteen U.S. soldiers and two foreign civilians were also wounded in a mortar attack south of Baghdad. At least 968 U.S. troops have been killed in action in Iraq and 9,000 have been wounded, most of them seriously.

Insurgents trying to drive out U.S.-led soldiers and topple the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have repeatedly attacked Iraqi police and soldiers.

Beggars Can Be Choosers: Pssst...Wanna know how to reduce your tax bill? Simple..become rich.

State of the Day: A Veteran Speaks

the demoprotestant: Ralph Nader, Green party activist or suicide bomber?

Carbon Paper: Remember the lies. GWB is a liar and an idiot.

'L.A. Times' Afghan Horror Story Confirmed by NBC

Sunni Muslim members on a committee drafting Iraq's new constitution suspended their participation Wednesday in the wake of a colleague's assassination, saying they need more security. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruiting center in central Baghdad, killing at least 10 people...read on

And so it goes...

via Talk Left: Why is no one calling on Senator Bill Frist to apologize to Senator Dick Durbin? Sen. Frist, repeating a false headline in the Washington Times, accused Sen. Durbin of saying Guantanamo is “a death camp." (Frist's statement, in two parts, is here and here. (pdf)) Read Senator Durbin's remarks (pdf). He never said that. Frist also falsely claimed that Durbin said our service members are “committing genocide and war crimes.” Durbin never said that either. Most outrageously, Frist essentially accused Durbin of encouraging suicide bombers.

The guy can't stop lying. I'm trying to look up his current disorder in the DSM IV . He could be a Borderline personality. We know he definetly has a Narcissistic Personality like disorder for sure.

"A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman blew himself up in the middle of a morning roll call Monday outside a traffic police headquarters in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 20 and wounding 50, officials said.... The bombing came a day after Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said there are many relatively stable areas in Iraq, such as Irbil and Basra in southern Iraq."

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I'm wondering when Dick " the insurgency is in its last throes " Cheney says that his statement was taken out of context.