For years we have been noting specious terrorism cases in which FBI operatives entrap gullible hotheads by pretending to be from al-Qaeda. Well this time it's different. This time its DEA operatives pretending to be from the Taliban. But once again, if you just read the headline you'd never know that the real Taliban had nothing to do with the case whatsoever. A sinister federal practice is compounded by irresponsible journalism. From the New York Times, Feb. 14:

From the NY Daily News, Sept. 8:

S.I. driver busted after opening car door and knocking cyclist into path of bus in fatal accident
A Staten Island woman was busted for unlicensed operation of a vehicle after a freak accident that claimed the life of a young bicyclist in Brooklyn, police said Sunday.

On Sept. 11, Lower Manhattan saw rival protests for and against the Islamic community center officially known as Cordoba House and popularly dubbed the "Ground Zero mosque." The anti-"mosque" protest organized by Stop Islamization of America—rightly called out as a hate group by Loonwatch—received much media hype, but this reporter failed to find it, after bicycling throughout the area. The closest was a dispirited and sparsely attended fundamentalist Christian rally at Church St. and Park Place, just a block from the proposed community center. A bunch of people who looked like they'd been bused in from the Midwest stood around as a preacher did his best firebrand routine, railing against pornography and abortion. There were big full-color posters featuring lugubrious photos of dismembered fetuses, looking like baskets of dessicated fried chicken. But where was Pamela Geller, and what did all this have to do with 9-11 or Cordoba House?

From the NY Times' City Room blog, Sept. 8:

Officer Resigns, Then Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
An off-duty police officer who struck and killed a woman in Brooklyn in 2009 pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday to second-degree vehicular manslaughter. According to the terms of the plea agreement, the officer, Andrew Kelly, will serve 90 days in jail and receive five years probation.

From the NY Daily News, Sept. 4:

Taxi smashes into East Village coffee shop; five people injured
An out-of-control yellow cab crashed into an East Village coffee shop early Sunday, critically injuring an elderly man, police said.

New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, rightly winning praise from civil libertarians over his principled position on the "Ground Zero Mosque," blows it bigtime with Native Americans—weighing in against their right to tax-free tobacco sales on their reservations in blatantly racist terms. New York state Indian nations held a rally at City Hall on Aug. 23 to demand an apology, which your trusty blogger covered for the weekly Indian Country Today. Excerpts:

From the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Aug. 19:

CAIR: Park51 Opponents Linked to Admirer of Terror Group Founder
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said today that leaders of the main hate group opposing the planned Park51 Islamic community center in Manhattan are partners with an individual who says he is an admirer of the founder of two terrorist organizations.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Aug. 9 approved a bus advertisement protesting the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which, as we have pointed out, is neither at Ground Zero nor a mosque). AP writes that the ads depict "a plane flying toward the World Trade Center's towers as they burn along with a rendering of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero." But we question whether the ad's depiction of the "proposed mosque" (sic) is accurate. An image of the ad at MSNBC shows a tall building inlaid with a giant star-and-crescent, whereas a rendering of the proposed Cordoba House (actually an ecumenical community center, now dubbed Park51 for its address on Park Place) on the progressive Jewish website Tikkun Olam shows it without the star and crescent. Poking around on the site of the Cordoba Initiative, the group behind the project, we were unable to find a depiction. The ad's caption reads "WTC Mega Mosque—Why There?" The ad was produced by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, whose website banner (in vivid contrast to pacifistic imagery at the Cordoba Initiative site) features an image of a charging soldier with an assault rifle below an American flag.