Last night, Mark Levin mocked the mainstream media, using Politico.com as a foil. He told them to “get serious” with their reporting instead of wasting his time with questions about the John Birch Society plus the 9/11 truthers, Birthers, and “militia-types.” They do not represent conservatives and the MSM’s idiotic questions will not deter us:

In addition, the Politico reported:

The courthouse in Shanksville, Pa., is emerging as the most likely alternative to New York because it is the only one outside a densely populated urban area. The city of Alexandria, Va., in the Washington metropolitan area, doesn’t have the underground tunnels between its jail and its courthouse that New York City’s complex has. Suspects have to be driven back and forth to each day’s proceedings, snarling traffic and increasing costs.

Here is my comment (#18) that I posted in reply:

You meant Johnstown lest the fire chief in Shanksville (pop. 243) conduct Holder’s show trial, ala Judge Roy Bean, in the only public building there, a 4-bay volunteer fire house. Having lost family on 9/11, I would happily serve as both bailiff and noontime hangman after that VERY speedy trial.

I’ll help you out with Johnstown. They have a two-story, brick [actually, it is four stories] federal courthouse that is primarily to adjudicate bankruptcy [cases] and accept filings. There is a trial courtroom and a small lockup yet we are talking tiny and nowhere near adequate for the “trial of the century.” For grins, let’s consider it anyway.

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Update, February 26, 2010: The federal courthouse in Johnstown occupies only the ground floor of this building and shares that floor with a small federal lockup, the regional IRS office, and a Social Security office. The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) occupies the second through fifth floors.

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The Feb 1, 2010 Johnstown Tribune-Democrat has the local reaction. Here is a taste:

* “I vote for Virginia,” Johnstown police Chief Craig Foust said, laughing. …

* “I will strongly oppose any decision that will have the mastermind of the September 11th attacks housed in our backyard in Johnstown or anywhere else in western Pennsylvania,” [PA-9 US Congressman] Shuster said in a statement. …

* The challenges will be overwhelming, warned [Ms] Tokar-Ickes, recalling the demands thrust on Somerset County’s resources after the crash of Flight 93 near Shanksville. … “If New York City can’t handle the realities of that trial, how could a small rural county?” she said.

* “It is unlikely that an area of western Pennsylvania would be able to handle that kind of responsibility.”Johnstown Mayor Tom Trigona said he has not been approached about the trial. “I am probably thinking it would not be a great idea,” Trigona said.

Me: In addition, the federal courthouse there sits across the street from both Johnstown’s leading attraction, the National Flood Museum, and the parking area for its second leading attraction, the Incline. It is right up against Washington Street, a major thoroughfare. It is a block from the leading hospital, UPMC, within a few blocks of towers for senior citizens and residential area, and inside the heart of the business district.

The trial ain’t happening in Johnstown. (I vote for Shanksville!)