I heard the rumor that Bin Laden had been killed earlier and the announcement had been delayed for DNA testing on ABC. This was reported before the speech started, but it was clearly incorrect. Apparently, Stephonopoulos was talking out of his ass. I’m not sure where that erroneous story started, but I don’t think the White House had anything to do with it. I guess the DNA testing will become the long form birth certificate of this story for the righties.

As much as I disagree with Miller and West on principle, they aren’t completely wrong. Just because Bin Laden is dead doesn’t mean Al Qaeda is done. But it’s still a positive development.

The day Obama released his long form birth certificate to satisfy American assholes, he said he had more important work to do.

Feeling shame yet, teabaggers?

Seriously though, this is a pretty clear example of Bush’s failed leadership in the war on terror. He let Bin Laden slip away, diverted attention to Iraq, and did nothing to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world. For this reason, Bin Laden’s standing among Arab extremists and moderates grew considerably. If Bush didn’t have such a boner for a war with Iraq, this a$$hole would have been dead long ago instead of threatening us from afar like he was Cobra Commander or something.

“Wake up Obama?”

Obama just killed Bin Laden, dimwit.

I think someone forgot to light Joe Miller’s pilot light. He’s on auto-spew.

Exactly so.

I DO believe, however, that Obama held off on the long-form b.c. until just before the White House Correspondents dinner. The timing on that was PERFECT.

I understand the announcement interrupted Celebrity Apprentass. Could life be any more perfect?

As much as I disagree with Miller and West on principle, they aren’t completely wrong.

Sure. And if, back in 1945, 5 minutes after the announcement of VE Day someone had piped up and said, “This doesn’t mean fascism is dead. Wake up, Mr. Roosevelt”, they’d have been a fucking asshole with lousy timing.

Someday very soon, Bin Laden’s death will be held up as evidence that torture works. Count on it.

Man, Joe fuckin’ Miller. Why isn’t he working for a fish cannery somewhere in the Aleutians by now?

I’m sure the spinners will be out in force tomorrow, but I’m not sure how much they can do. Everyone but the hardcore righties is going to like this. I’d say a 10-15% jump in Obama’s approval rating by the time it’s all said and done. The crazy teabag base will go off into their own little world as usual, but the guys with half a brain know that too much sour grapes (“Give Bush the credit! Where’s the death certificate?!”) will make the public hate them even more.

To hear is to obey, exalted one:

After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, “detainees gave us information on couriers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42853221/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Sure. And if, back in 1945, 5 minutes after the announcement of VE Day someone had piped up and said, “This doesn’t mean fascism is dead. Wake up, Mr. Roosevelt”, they’d have been a fucking asshole with lousy timing

Remarkably bad timing, since FDR had been dead for most of a month on VE Day. “Wake up, Mr. Roosevelt,” would have shown a level of cluelessness… that would, actually, fit right in with modern teabaggery.

Never mind.

Wingnuts need to be reminded of this…

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”

…I am truly not that concerned about him.”

- G.W. Bush, responding to a question about bin Laden’s whereabouts, 3/13/2002

Sad thing is, for any other President, this would have marked a low point.

Only because we know the cons come here to get educated, let me add to your point….because the media will be working OT tomorrow getting George W. Bush co-credit for the kill-

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?pagewanted=prin

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 4, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

You don’t have to go far to see some serious douchebaggery – check out Hamsher’s thread.

Nobody in Gitmo was likely to know about the big fancy cave.

Of course, that will not stop the wingnuts from their declarations.

::

Ick. Remembering, yet again, why I stay away from there …

I’m waiting for “Obama had bin Laden killed because he knew the truth about the birth certificate, and was about to spill it.”

[reposted below -- corrected which post I was replying to]

Fair enough. It was a good day for everyone when that bastard got killed. I would have preferred he got captured and tried, but I don’t think it was worth risking lives to take him alive. The proclamations from the right wingers are remarkably tone deaf, but then they live in a bubble of Obama-hate, and would puke blood if they ever had to give him credit for doing something right. I mean correctly.

Perhaps I’m a little weird. I think this is a good thing, but it’s hard to feel jubilant about it. I’m glad the familes finally got closure

“A week”? Piker. Try this one on for size: Bush personally killed Obama bin, I mean O_s_ama bin Laden with his bare hands in 2005, but with characteristic modest generosity left the body in a chest freezer in the WH basement for the next President to use. That Bush; a secular saint if there ever was one!

I watched Morning Jerk a bit this AM and it was hilarious: Donnie was all, “ha ha fundies, see??? We’re better!” and even Mika commented how Obama did all this while delaing with petty biterism and didn’t it make all of them look totes dickish? Meanwhile, Jerk Doucheborough couldn’t quite resign himself to all this. so he kept pointing out that all this really went against what Obama really believed in and we Dems didn’t REALLY support this, blahdy blah.

And on the other far side of the spectrum are those who actually do what Morning Jerk accuses them of. urbanmamas.com, a blog by very suburban poser housewives here in PDX has a post going on about how deeply personal and final death is, how really they can’t celebrate it and how can they explain being happy to the kiddies???? As I pointed out in MY rebuttal comment, would this be their attitude when Hitler was found in the bunker, too?

Good commentary on bin Laden’s death and the effects of “The Most Awesomest War on Terror EVAH! USA! USA!” from, of course, a Canadian who covers the US:

The Devil likely died happy.

Already happened. Jennifer Rubin gives credit to Bush, the Iraq war, and Gitmo., none to Obama.

As much as I hate to say it, Nicemax may have the beginning of a point (of course, he’s gone ahead and taken it to the douchiest extreme). I’m unaware of any technology that would allow a definitive DNA match in a couple hours, and the challenge of doing the testing in Afghanistan is pretty significant, too. I mean, if you sequenced her entire genome, found a couple hundred very rare polymorphisms, made a bunch of primers, and set up a multiplexing PCR, you might be able to do it in ~4-6 hrs. In a really nice lab with unlimited resources.

That said, my genetics knowledge is a bit dated and maybe something new and exciting exists. Anybody got out there w/a PhD more useful than mine have any ideas?

Look for this to pop up at the Con sites “Of course Obummer knew where to find OBL, they’re both muslims aren’t they?”

According to an expert in DNA analysis, it would take about five hours or less.

Here’s the relevant article:

http://scienceblogs.com/observations/2011/05/how_do_you_id_a_dead_osama_any.php

No way – last night was the culmination of GWB’s careful strategy, begun in March 2002 (“I just don’t spend that much time thinking about him”) and furthered in 2006 (with the disbanding of the CIA’s OBL search unit), to lull OBL into a false sense of security.

Wolverines!!11!!1!

Thanks for the link. That methodology is great if you have a matching sample, it’s a little more of a challenge with DNA from a sibling. Plus, getting that beast of a machine up and running in Afghanistan would be a nightmare (though certainly not beyond the abilities of the US military). I’d still like to hear the details of the science involved (trying not to sound all birther-y, I’m sure they really did it, I just want to hear how).

From what I’ve read, OBL’s body was transported to a US Navy carrier for burial at sea. I would imagine that the mobile lab to identify him might have been on the ship.

As for a matching sample, it wouldn’t surprise me if the US Gov’t had a DNA profile of bin Laden secured from samples it has collected over the years. There was one incident where he was tipped off only hours before US forces raided his hideout. They could have collected DNA at that location and assembled a DNA profile of OBL using samples obtained from family members.

There’s no telling how many biological samples they had available to help with the matching. So that may have helped. And it can’t have been a surprise to find out that they’d need to identify him genetically. Who knows, they may have gotten the DNA sometime during the run up to the actual operation.

Damn beat me to it I need more eternal vigilance, or whatever.

I do know that the cost and presumably, the speed of genomic analysis has gone down, and I’m sure that, using a library of markers from his sisters’ DNA, they could have an OBL ID kit that would work fast enough and be sure of identification at the same time.

Hey Tbogg, I’m totes bummed that you closed the comments for your New Republic says Paul Ryan’s FDR thing-jammy. Cause, uh, I think we ALL know who the REAL new FDR is! Seems to be working on a faster timetable, too.

Game on. Toldja.

I’ve gotta give Obama credit: he had the good taste not to announce this in a codpiece.
Now, maybe we bring the troops home and charge the fighting of the “War on Terror” to the law enforcement and intelligence agents who should’ve been running it all along.
I’ve gotta think the Republicans would like that idea: it’ll save a shitload of money.

Analysts used a number of methods to identify the body of Osama bin Laden after the raid early Monday in Pakistan. One of these was genetic kinship analysis, a method of typing DNA that has been in common use for many years, often helping to identify crime victims and settle questions about paternity. The technique was used to identify those killed during the 9/11 attacks, as well as victims of Hurricane Katrina.
…………………………
There is a very small chance that any two random people would share genetic markers. The likelihood that three related people would randomly have the same markers is less. The likelihood that four would is even less, and so on. “The more relatives, the better for the math,” Bieber said.

It typically takes several hours to complete each step of the analysis process, Bieber said, though he noted that in high-profile cases like this one, law enforcement agencies might already have genetic profiles of the relatives available -- which means they’d only have to complete one additional test.

High-priority tests can be expedited, he added.

DNA: how they know Osama bin Laden is Osama bin Laden

Excuse me while I whip this out.

Some say it was actually an Obama-care death panel training mission, with the objective of reducing future health care costs among the pre-55yrs demographic.

That’s why Emptywheel had to do this quick post:

The Osama bin Laden Trail Shows Waterboarding Didn’t Work

OBL’s daughter was there, apparently.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2011/0502/Bin-Laden-bodyguard-s-satellite-phone-calls-helped-lead-US-forces-to-hiding-place

Why, that’s right around the time he moved into his compound in Abbotabad!

The terrorist equivalent of being hit by some kid while he’s texting and driving? “I know they said not to use my phone but I gotta check my facebook….Huh? What’s that noise?”

Well, the Devil may not have been that happy when he died. I heard some Islamic Studies scholar yesterday saying that OBL living long enough to see true defeat: all those uprisings in the Middle East lately were of Arab populations demanding Democracy, not wahhabist theocracy. I do not think this is the outcome he intended…

OMFG, it’s the long-lost Trig Palin ultrasound! Somebody, EVERYBODY, alert Sully!