TERRORIST MOONINITES ATTACK BOSTON

On Wednesday, the city of Boston overreacted to a viral marketing prank and shut down the city under fear of terrorist attack. Several circuit boards with LEDs (we called them Lite Brights when I was a kid) were installed in several public places, including subway stations. It turns out the objects in question were planted by the Cartoon Network (a subsidiary of the Time Warner behemoth), and the image is of the retro pixellated Mooninite, a character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

This is the new face of terror.



The folks who made the glowing Mooninites are treating it as an opportunity to further put on the media, and introduce a long overdue frank discussion of 70's hairstyles. Call 'em sellouts if you will, but at least they're using their moment in the sun to show the absurdity of herd mentality journalism.

The Anti-Advertising Agency has a thoughtful take on the matter.

UPDATE: More from Lindsey Beyerstein on how Interference, Inc is the real hoaxer in this case, not the two artists who are the fall guys.

EXTRA UPDATE: It didn't take very long for some merch to surface.

IN A NUTSHELL

Josh Marshall gets down to the nub of things in political terms:

You may remember quite a bit earlier in our long national nightmare the White House and its toadies and acolytes were very big on the so-called 'fly-paper' theory of the Iraq War. All the bombings and killings were a sign that the policy was working. Rather than have the terrorists hitting us in America or other spots around the world we had created a terrorist killing field in Iraq where we could wipe them out on our own terms, right where we wanted them. That and create a democracy there too.

I still remember one really clever TPM Reader writing in and telling me: that's brilliant. Sort of like by creating a really dirty hospital, we're going to create a place where we can fight the germs on our own terms!

I don't know about you but sometimes I feel like we're in this eerie afterburn of our four long years of disaster. The public has rendered its verdict. Every thinking person has rendered their verdict. But the administration is still going on more or less as though nothing's happened. Serious thinking in Washington of The Note variety is still on a sort of mental autopilot. The story's over. All the real arguments are settled. But as of yet the car is still in drive rather than reverse.

Like the line says, first do no harm. And for the United States as a country, right now, that means doing everything constitutionally, legally and politically possible to limit the president's and even more Vice President Cheney's free hand to shape and execute American foreign policy. Sift it all out and it's that simple. Stop them from doing any more damage. All the rest is commentary and elaboration.

RANDOM FACTOIDS GLEANED FROM MEDIA OVERGRAZING

The father of the new governor of Massachusetts was a member of Sun Ra's Arkestra.

Shirley Temple's daughter Lori (aka Lorax) was a bass player for the Melvins.