More on San Francisco Terrorism

Fox News may be marginally more centrist than other news outlets, and it may employ more conservative commentators, but it suffers from the same blind spots as the rest of the MSM, probably because it inevitably must employ on its low-level staff -- i.e., the writers for their Internet site -- young men and women fresh out of Journalism School, who will skew left, and also because, like all of the MSM, relies on the Associated Press for reporting news. Here is the Fox News report on the San Francisco terror attack, which is essentially the same AP report from other outlets recycled.

The report repeats the meme that has dominated coverage of this story so far. That meme is that Omeed Aziz Popal ran over 14 people because he was "crazed" or "deranged." The mayor of San Francisco,
Gavin Newsom, augments the meme by mouthing the typical bland pablum of the elite:

"These are the things, these are so senseless. They're utterly inexplicable. They're impossible to rationalize," Newsom said afterward. "The fact that this individual felt compelled for whatever reason to be determined to do what he did is beyond imagination."

But this story is not "utterly inexplicable." There appears to be a fairly simple explanation sitting right there in the same story. Here is what we do know as facts:

1. Omeed Aziz Popal's family is from Afghanistan.
2. Popal recently had an arranged marriage.
3. Popal's arranged marriage was in Afghanistan.
4. Popal recently returned from Afghanistan.
5. His family suggests that he was "under pressure" in Afghanistan.
6. Popal chose to run down people in front of the Jewish Community Center and in the most heavily Jewish area of San Francisco.
7. All of this is happening as the worldwide jihadist segment of Islam has been roiled by Iran's brinksmanship on nuclear weapons development and by the Hezbollah-Israel "war."

Now, don't the MSM always complain that President Bush "failed to connect the dots" before 9/11? Are these dots that hard to connect?
Is it too much to ask that the media simply ask Mayor Newsom to comment on these possible connections? To ask whether his office has been in contact with the Homeland Security Department or the FBI about Popal? That's how the MSM makes news in other circumstances... they ask public figures to comment about things. Don't they have any curiosity about what the answer might be?

Imagine if a Christian fundamentalist had run down 14 people in a predominantly gay area of San Francisco after just returning from a trip to, say, Mississippi where his family says he was "under pressure." Just imagine what curiosity the MSM could summon then.

UPDATE: According to the website, jihadwatch.org, Popal identified himself to police as a terrorist. Why exactly hasn't that filtered by now into the MSM?

MSM Buries the Lede on the S.F. Terrorist Act

Here is an article by CNN about the story coming out of San Francisco today involving a man named "Omeed A. Popal," who has apparently intentionally run down 14 people in the Laurel Heights neighborhood of the city in what CNN characterizes in its headline as an "SUV rampage."

Those darn SUVs! Aren't they always doing the meanest things like taking up two parking spaces and using up our fossil fuels and polluting our air! Those SUV people really ought to be punished, say, by raising their taxes, or by forcing them to switch to hybrid vehicles.

Wait a minute. What neighborhood was that again? Laurel Heights? Hmmmmm.... I wonder what would happen if I looked that up on the Internet?

Well, you know the rest of the story. Laurel Heights is the most heavily Jewish neighborhood in the city, the area north of Golden Gate Park and west of Presidio Boulevard. The Jewish Community Center is there, as well as the two biggest synagogues in the city, as well as the Bureau of Jewish Education, and the Jewish Library and... well, you get the point. But Right Curmudgeon, buddy, you are from the midwest, how do you know that? Funny you should ask, well, it took me about 30 seconds on the Internet to come up with this story about the "Jewish Heritage" abounding in San Francisco.

Oh, and it took me another 30 seconds trolling more responsible, serious news outlets to find out that Omeed A. Popal's middle name is "Aziz." Any idea what his religion might be and why he might want to run down Jews?

Once again, in the midst of a global war against radical Islamist anti-Semites, the Western elite media buries the lede.

UPDATE: Oh, and by the way, what editor thought it would be a good idea to change "Aziz" to "A."? Were there space considerations... just can't fit in those extra three letters? Or do they have a policy of changing middle names for everyone? Or, is it just possible that they decided to censor the information contained in Mr. Popal's middle name, because it might suggest bad thoughts to their readers? But, of course, the "bad thought" here -- that Mr. Popal is an anti-Semite Islamist terrorist -- has a good chance of turning out to be true. In any event, the fact that Mr. Popal's middle name is "Aziz" is what any free-thinking real journalist would understand as falling under the general heading of "NEWS."