skippy the bush kangaroo: seriously, we thought huey from 'boondocks' would be the one to get arrested

Thursday, February 01, 2007

seriously, we thought huey from 'boondocks' would be the one to get arrested

is it marketing gone stupid or homeland security gone paranoid?

boston, along with most of the cable news networks, was essentially shut down today as police, right wingers and worry-warts everywhere mistook some magnetic lights set up to advertise the aqua teen hunger force movie for a terrorist plot to, uh...make us watch talking meatballs, we guess. reuters:

the day-long scare began when a suspicious package was found on a steel beam under a bridge in the morning. police stopped traffic on a major interstate highway north of boston, cordoned off the area, deployed a bomb squad and blew it up.

by afternoon, at least eight other similar suspicious packages were discovered, each triggering a security alert involving emergency crews, federal agents, bomb squads, police and the u.s. coast guard.

"the 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," turner broadcasting system inc., a unit of time warner inc., said in statement.

wait...it gets better: the devices apparently had been in place for weeks, and they just now got around to freaking out about them today:

they had been in place for two to three weeks in boston, new york, los angeles, chicago, atlanta, seattle, portland, austin, san francisco, and philadelphia.

"we regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," said turner, adding that it had contacted law enforcement officials to give them the precise locations of the packages.

the scare forced officials to close down the charles river. and if you've ever closed down a river, you know how tough that can be.

in a related story, bender from futurama was sentenced to an indefinite stay in abu ghraib.

posted by skippy at 12:04 AM |

7 Comments:

These idiots put up 41 of those things in NYC. We didn't freak out.

commented by

Fixer, 2:36 AM PST

These idiots put up 41 of those things in NYC. We didn't freak out.

commented by

Fixer, 2:39 AM PST

Wait, I bet there's HUNDREDS of idle briefcases in the Capitol building! Clearly we're being invaded by space aliens with foot fetishes. That's why they compel us all to go shoeless at airports!

commented by

Kevin Hayden, 5:05 AM PST

I like how officials in Boston noted that they were "sophisticated devices" and they arrested two guys who hung the devices up.

It's sad really, they seemed so sure Osama would send his followers to kill Bostonians with exploding Lite Brites. What's next, exploding homeless peoples' boxes and shopping carts?

commented by

Anonymous, 6:11 AM PST

"These idiots put up 41 of those things in NYC. We didn't freak out."

Maybe because we're used to guerrilla advertising - you know, sidewalk sheds being wrapped in jeans commercials and what have you. Indeed, the rumpus being raised in Boston is the first I've heard of it. I wonder if Mitt's admin is trying to bury bad news or something?

commented by

TheaLogie, 7:38 AM PST

I saw the apology on Adult Swim and thought it was a typical Adult Swim joke.

commented by

Athenawise, 9:48 AM PST

Now if they would just go around and blow up all those Got Milk? billboards...

commented by

DBK, 11:17 AM PST

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