This has happened before and it appears to be a tactic to bog down the breaking news column and push whatever contents are posted off of the front page. I would imagine that it has something to do with the postings that are critical of Israel in relation to 9/11 and the local appearances of two authors who have published a compelling book about the pro-Israeli lobby. It seems that the one thing that really provokes IMC trolls other than immigration is criticism of Isreal. So it doesn't take half a brain to see where these individuals are coming from. The IMC should have a routine for cleaning up this clutter immediately, just as it does for regulating hateful postings.