Little Green Footballs

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

How to get banned on LGF: say not all Arabs are evil

LGFWatch reader QB (thanks ;-) points to a perfect example of Charles Johnson ideologically streamlining his weblog Little Green Footballs. Not content to hound the odd dissenter by setting his minions on them, he's equally quick off the mark when it comes to barring potentially criticaly voices from registering and starting a discussion.

The example here is of Abdulhalim, an Arab man who managed to register and post a total of three times before Charles blocked him. Did he say anything offensive to warrant this? Judge for yourself, comments #34, #45, #51 on Terror Close to Home.

Basically, all it takes is for you to dare to voice the opinion that not all Arabs are evil, and you get blocked on LGF. Simple as that. Contrast this with comments such as:

"When are we ever going to purge the disease of "Palestinians" from Israel?" (#2)

" I suggest the use of a chemical developed by the Chinese that prevents the the target from being able to impregnate a woman. No other side effect and the target can perform sexually just as before. Great stuff. Just dump it in their water supply then within a generation there are no young spodley dopes and assassins to take the place of the older generation." (#23)

"The only good terrorist (90% of Palestinians) is a dead terrorist" (#55)


...and you will see that calling for genocide is perfectly acceptable on LGF - provided you are calling for the genocide of Palestinians.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Charles Johnson: let's kick some Muslim butt

...well, that's not quite what the big C said, but he's clearly heading there. In a story that we nearly missed (shopping rush, if you must know), LGFers have come down firmly on the side of giving all Muslims in America a little yellow crescent for Christmas. In U.S., 44 Percent Say Restrict Muslims' Rights

An exemplary LGF opinion on the survey was expressed thus:

#21 jelo 12/17/2004 06:21PM PST


Do not trust a muslim, do not trust a muslim, do not trust a muslim........

Hilariously, Charles 'mainstream media are the enemy' Johnson interprets the survey to mean that
...the results show that more informed people are concerned about Islamic radicalism in the United States. But Professor Shanahan refuses to draw the obvious conclusion—that maybe they’re right.

Now hold on a minute: did the survey say anything about it being people who are "more informed" who want to see Muslims lose their right to equal treatment under the law? No, it didn't. It showed that (apart from religiosity), high exposure to television news was a factor among those who favoured curtailing Muslims' civil liberties. Is Charles Johnson honestly arguing that watching television news makes you "more informed"?

This moron never ceases to amaze us. We look forward to what illogical pronouncements he's going to come up with in the new year.

Monday, December 20, 2004

Monday, December 13, 2004

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Probably Those Buddhist Extremists Again

Charles has been keeping a watchful eye on religious violence in Asia lately, and today he alerts us to another atrocity committed against unarmed civilians in the name of religion.

But wait, while Charles is busy lambasting those evil Mooooslims again, he seems to have missed those evil Buddhists! Whatcha expect from LGF, huh?

Friday, December 10, 2004

LGF doesn't regret troops' lack of armour

The executive editor of the Little Green Footballs, Charles Johnson, is having another go at journalists for trying to get their questions through to Donald Rumsfeld on a recent tour of Iraq: 'Paper Regrets Handling of Rumsfeld Story'.

Notice how Charles doesn't seem concerned about the fact that reporters were barred from asking questions in the first place, nor about the question in, ahem, question, which was about why US soldiers in Iraq are not properly equipped. The only problem, according to the LGF supremo, is that a soldier talked to a journalist before asking Rumsfeld a question.

You gotta wonder about ole Charlie boy's state of mind when he starts arguing FOR media suppression and shoddy equipment for the troops...

Charles Johnson: free speech for soldiers, but only behind closed doors

Charles 'free speech' Johnson has come up with another fantastic contortion of logic today by arguing that, while it is a GOOD thing that US soldiers got to ask the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, some questions on his whistle-stop tour of Iraq, it was a BAD thing that they were helped to formulate these questions by a professional question-asker (ie journalist), and it was a BAD thing that the questions happened to be so damned inconvenient for the SECDEF ("why are our troops so badly equipped").

Why is Charles more worried about they way the question was asked than about the actual question and the answer given by Rumsfeld? Doesn't Charles care whether US troops are properly equipped or not?

You gotta read it to believe it

Fallujah


Dead boy holding white surrender flag. (Dahr Jamail/dahrjamailiraq.com; via Falluja Pictures)

Thursday, December 09, 2004

CBS recruits LGF to hype new show

You heard it here first: Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs appears to have engaged in a pact with the devil (i.e. the mainstream media) by repeatedly promoting Dan Rather's 60 Minutes programme. See

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13886

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13877

When will this shameful collusion between far-right bloggers and mainstream media end?!

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Impending Doom at LGF...

...we wish. Unfortunately, spewing genocidal nonsense on his message board has never been something Charles Johnson has worried much about: as long as it's directed at Yurpeeens or Moooslims, that is:

"#243 bigel 12/7/2004 12:49PM PST

Writermom #227

The Kraut-Nazi-Germans are filthy Jewkilling animals. Worse than the Arabs.

And should Israel have to go to the Samson Option, it should save some Shavit missiles for Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Vienna. More if they can spare it."
Link

When rules go out the window...

...and it's up to journalists to report the horrible truth:

Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, of Memphis, Tenn., and Spc. Brent W. May, 22, of Salem, Ohio, are the second pair of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment of Ft. Riley, Kan., to face murder charges stemming from separate incidents in August.

Williams and May, who are held in what authorities described as military confinement here, could face the death penalty if convicted.

The allegations against them are among about a dozen murder cases that have been filed against U.S. troops in Iraq. Details of their actions were revealed after last month's videotaped killing of a wounded insurgent by a U.S. Marine in Fallouja.
LA Times

I don't suppose Charles will concede that the public has the right to know if US soldiers are committing cold-blooded murder in Iraq though.

That little detail...

Today the big C reminds us that exactly 63 years ago America was sneakily attacked at Pearl Harbour, forcing it to retaliate and enter the second world war.

What he seems conveniently to have forgotten is that the war had already been raging in Europe and the Far East for more than two years, with the United States doing little to defend democracy and freedom. So much for America springing into action when the world is in danger...

I see a meme in the making

Can it be a coincidence that out of the five results Google shows for the search "racist Weblog" three are related to Little Green Footballs?

Anyone for a little googlebombing?

Monday, December 06, 2004

Charles Johnson: not so good with numbers

LGF supremo Charles F Johnson is a man who knows his fonts, but not his multiplication tables, it seems. In his latest missive he congratulates his lizard spawn on raising over $10,000 (a currency not currently thought to be in high demand) for some sort of BloggerAid project. That's roughly $1.14 per registered LGF user: clearly a massive display of goodwill towards the Iraqi people.

Assuming that a large proportion of LGF users are US taxpayers, it's interesting to note that they have given their government around $550 so far to bomb the hell out of Iraq, but are prepared to give only 1/482th as much towards rebuilding the country. No wonder right-wing lizard brains don't make good economists or foreign affairs specialists.



Looking in the wrong direction

Sunday, December 05, 2004

50 years on, still relevant

Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy
See it Now (CBS-TV, April 6, 1954)
"Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's Reply"

Murrow: Good evening. This is See it Now presented each week at this time by ALCOA, the Aluminum Company of America. Tonight's report consists entirely of certain remarks by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and in order to present those remarks without interruption we ask you now to watch with us this report from ALCOA. (Commercial break.)

Murrow: One month ago tonight we presented a report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. We labeled it as controversial. Most of that report consisted of words and pictures of the Senator. At that time we said if the Senator believes that we have done violence to his words or pictures -- if he desires to speak -- to speak to answer himself, an opportunity will be afforded him on this program. The Senator sought the opportunity, asked for a delay of three weeks because he said he was very busy and he wished adequate time to prepare his rebuttal. We agreed. We supplied the Senator with a kinescope of that program of March 9 and with such scripts and recordings as he requested. We make no exception upon the manner of presentation and we suggested that we would not take the time to comment on this particular program. The Senator chose to make his reply on film. Here now is Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, junior Senator from Wisconsin.

McCarthy: Good evening. Mr. Edward R. Murrow, educational director of the Columbia Broadcasting System, devoted his program to an attack on the work of the United States Senate Investigating Committee and on me personally as its chairman, and over the past four years he has made repeated attacks upon me and those fighting Communists. Now, of course, neither Joe McCarthy nor Edward R. Murrow is of any great importance as individuals. We are only important in our relation to the great struggle to preserve our American liberties.

The Senate Investigating Committee has forced out of government, and out of important defense plants, Communists engaged in the Soviet conspiracy. And, you know, it's interesting to note that the viciousness of Murrow's attacks is in direct ratio to our success in digging out Communists.

Now, ordinarily -- ordinarily I would not take time out from the important work at hand to answer Murrow. However, in this case, I feel justified in doing so because Murrow is a symbol -- the leader and the cleverest of the jackal pack which is always found at the throat of anyone who dares to expose individual Communists and traitors. I am compelled by the facts to say to you that Mr. Edward R. Murrow, as far back as twenty years ago, was engaged in propaganda for Communist causes. For example, the Institute of International Education, of which he was the acting director, was chosen to act as a representative by a Soviet agency to do a job which would normally be done by the Russian secret police. Mr. Murrow sponsored a Communist school in Moscow. In the selection of American students and teachers who were to attend, Mr. Murrow's organization acted for the Russian espionage and propaganda organization known as Voks (V-O-K-S) and many of those selected were later exposed as Communists. Murrow's organization selected such notorious Communists as Isadore Gegun, David Zablodowsky. Incidentally, Zablodowsky was forced out of the United Nations, when my chief counsel presented his case to the grand jury and gave a picture of his Communist activities.

Now, Mr. Murrow, by his own admission, was a member of the IWW. That's the Industrial Workers of the World -- a terrorist organization cited as subversive by an attorney general of the United States, who stated that it was an organization which seeks (and I quote) "to alter the Government of the United States by unconstitutional means." Now, other government committees have had before them actors, screen writers, motion picture producers and others, who admitted Communist affiliations but pleaded youth or ignorance. Now, Mr. Murrow can hardly make the same plea.

On March nine of this year, Mr. Murrow (a trained reporter, who had traveled all over the world, who was the educational director of CBS) followed implicitly the Communist line, as laid down in the last six months, laid down not only by the Communist Daily Worker, but by the Communist magazine Political Affairs and by the National Conference of the Communist Party of the United States of America.

Now the question: Why is it important to you, the people of America, to know why the Educational Director and the Vice President of CBS so closely follow the Communist Party line? To answer that question we must turn back the pages of history.

A little over a hundred years ago a little group of men in Europe conspired to deliver the world to a new system, to Communism. Under their system, the individual was nothing, the family was nothing, God did not even exist. Their theory was that an all-powerful state should have the power of life or death over its citizens without even a trial -- that everything and everybody belonged to the rulers of the state. They openly wrote -- nothing secret about it! -- that, in their efforts to gain power, they would be justified in doing anything: that they would be justified in following the trail of deceit, lies, terror, murder, treason, blackmail. All these things were elevated to virtues in the Communist rule book. If a convert to Communism could be persuaded that he was a citizen of the world, it of course would be much easier to make him a traitor to his own country.

Now, for seventy years Communists made no progress. Let me show you a map of the world as it stood in the middle of the first world war of 1917, before the Russian Revolution. You will see there is not a single foot of ground on the face of the globe under the domination or control of Communists, and bear in mind that this was only 36 years ago. In 1917 we were engaged in a great world war in defense of our way of life and in defense of American liberty. The Czar had to divide his armies in defense of both eastern and western fronts. In the midst of the war the Russian people overthrew their Czarist master and they set up a democratic form of government under the leadership of Alexander Kerensky. Now, Kerensky's government immediately pledged all support to the allies. By this instance the imperial German government secretly planned the return of Russia of seven Communist exiles led by Nicolai Lenin, exiles that had been forced to leave the country. A very important event in the history of the world. They left for Russia by the same method which the Communists are employing in the United States today. They undermined the Army. They undermined the Navy -- the civilian heads of government, and in one hundred days those seven Communists were literally the masters of Russia. Now, with all the wealth of the nation at their command they proceeded to finance Communist parties in every country in the world. They sent those countries trained propagandists and spies.

In every country they, of course, had to find glib, clever men like Edward R. Murrow who would sponsor invitations to students and teachers to attend indoctrination schools in Moscow, exactly as Murrow has done. They trained Communists in every country in the world. Their sole purpose was: infiltrate the government. And, once Communists were in government, they in turn brought others in.

Now let us look at the map of the world as it was twenty years ago. At that time there was one country with 180,000,000 people in Communist chains. Now let us look at a map of the world as of tonight, this sixth day of April, nineteen hundred and fifty-four: over one-third of the earth's area under Communist control and 800,000,000 people in Communist chains, in addition to the 800,000,000 in Communist chains in Europe and Asia. Finally, the Communists have gained a foothold and a potential military base here in our half of the world, in Guatemala, with the Communists seeping down into the Honduras.

My good friends, how much of this was achieved by military force and how much was achieved by traitors and Communist-line propagandists in our own government and in other free governments?

Let's start in Europe, if we may. They took, by military force, a little piece of Finland. In the same way they took three small Baltic states: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. They took half of Poland in the same way. They acquired the rest of Poland through Polish traitors and Communists in our own government, who gave American dollars and American support to the Communists in Poland. They took over Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, without firing a single shot. They did this by the infiltration of Communists in the key spots in the governments. The Communists took over Czechoslovakia without firing a shot. This they did by the infiltration of Communists into the Czechoslovakian government also. And listen to what a high official in the anti-Communist government of Czechoslovakia had to say about the Communist enslavement of Czechoslovakia. Here is what he said.

He said, "In my country, the patterns was identical to what it is in the United States. If anyone, before the Communists took over, dared to attack those Communists who were preparing and shaping the policy of my government, shaping the policy to betray my people, he was promptly attacked and destroyed by a combination of Communists, fellow travellers and those unthinking people who thought they were serving the cause of liberalism and progress, but who were actually serving the cause of the most reactionary credo of all times, Communism." Still quoting: "Because of those people, night has fallen upon my nation and slavery upon my people."

Now, shifting to another area of the world, to the East, how about this vast land area and the teeming masses of China? Let's just take a look at the map, if you please. Keep in mind that a few short years ago China was a free nation, friendly to the United States. Now, were the -- were -- Let's take a look at that map. Were those 400,000,000 Chinese captured by force of arms? Certainly not. They were delivered -- delivered to Communist slave masters by the jackal pack of Communist-line propagandists, including the friends of Mr. Edward R. Murrow, who day after day shouted to the world that the Chinese Communists were agrarian reformers and that our ally, the Republic of China, represented everything that was evil and wicked.

Now, my good friends, if there were no Communists in our government, would we have consented to and connived to turn over all of our Chinese friends to the Russians? Now, my good friends, if there had been no Communists in our government, would we have awarded them with all of Manchuria, half of the Kurile Islands and one-half of Korea? Now, how many Americans -- how many Americans have died and will die because of this sell-out to Communist Russia? God only knows!

If there were no Communists in our government, why did we delay for eighteen months, delay our research on the hydrogen bomb, even though our intelligence agencies were reporting day after day that the Russians were feverishly pushing their development of the H-Bomb? And may I say to America tonight that our nation may well die -- our nation may well die -- because of that eighteen-months deliberate delay. And I ask you: Who caused it? Was it loyal Americans? Or was it traitors in our government?

It is often said by the left wing that it is sufficient to fight Communism in Europe and Asia, but that Communism is not a domestic American issue. But the record, my good friends, is that the damage has been done by cleverly calculated subversion at home, and not from abroad. It is this problem of subversion that our Committee faces.

Now, let us very quickly glance at some of the work of our Committee, some of the work was done in slightly over a year's time. For example, 238 witnesses were examined in public session; 367 witnesses examined in executive session; 84 witnesses refused to testify as to Communist activities on the ground that, if they told the truth, they might go to jail; twenty-four witnesses with Communist backgrounds have been discharged from jobs in which they were handling secret, top-secret, confidential material -- individuals who were exposed before our committee.

Of course you can't measure the success of a committee by a box score, based on the number of Communist heads that have rolled from secret jobs. It is completely impossible to even estimate the sort of the effects on our government of the day-to-day plodding exposure of Communists. And that is, of course, why the Murrows bleed. For example, the exposure of only one fifth amendment Communist which I've been thinking of in obtaining secret materials from almost every government agency, resulted in the removal of the loyalty board and the revamping of oaths and loyalty rules so that we do have pretty good tight rules coming out at this time. Also the disclosure of Communists in the military and in the laboratories resulted in the abolition of a pentagon board which had cleared and ordered reinstatement of Communists who had for years been handling government papers. Also, as a result of those hearings Army orders have been issued to avoid a recurrence of the Major Peress scandal which was a closed-door thing. Now in attempts to evaluate the efforts of the work of an investigating committee would be about as impossible to attempt to evaluate the effects of well-trained watchdogs upon the activities of professional burglars.

We Americans live in a free world, a world where we can stand as individuals, where we can go to the church of our own choice and worship God as we please, each in his own fashion, where we can freely speak our opinions on any subject or on any man. Now whether -- whether we shall continue to so live has come to issue now. We will soon know whether we are going to go on living that kind of life or whether we are going to live the kind of life that 800,000,000 slaves live under Communist domination. The issue is simple. It is the issue of life or death for our civilization.

Now, Mr. Murrow said on this program -- and I quote -- he said: "The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have given considerable comfort to the enemy." That's the language of our statute of treason -- rather strong language. If I am giving comfort to our enemies, I ought no to be in the Senate. If, on the other hand, Mr. Murrow is giving comfort to our enemies, he ought not to be brought into the homes of millions of Americans by the Columbia Broadcasting System.

Now, this is a question which can be resolved with very little difficulty. What do the Communists think of me? And what do the Communists think of Mr. Murrow? One of us is on the side of the Communists; the other is against the Communists, against Communist slavery.

Now, the Communists have three official publications in America. These aren't ordinary publications. They have been officially determined to be a transmission belt to which Communists in America are entrusted as the party-line or the position which Communist writers and playwrights must take and this also applies to broadcasters. The first of these is a booklet which I would like to show you, if I may, Political Affairs by the National Conference of the Communist Party in the U.S.A. published in New York in October, 1953. It reports, quote: "The struggle against McCarthy is developing currently along the following lines (keep in mind this is a Communist publication giving instructions to members of the party) the struggle against witch hunting, struggle against investigations of the McCarthy/McCarran type, and defense of the victims of McCarthyism such as Owen Lattimore, etc., in addition there is the direct attack on McCarthy." Let me ask you, does that sound somewhat like the program of Edward R. Murrow of March 9 over this same station? Now, in this difficulty the Communists do not have the right to instruct -- to instruct the comrades that their fight on McCarthy is only a means to a larger end. Again, let me quote from the instructions from the Communist Party to its membership, on page 33, I quote: "Our main task is to mobilize the left for the defeat of the foreign and domestic policy of the Eisenhower Administration and for the defeat of the Eisenhower regime itself. The struggle against McCarthyism contributes to this general objective." One more quotation, if I may, from page 31 of the instructions intended for Communist members, and I quote: "Since these actions McCarthyism has emerged as a menace of major proportions." And I think now I know what they mean by "a menace of major proportion." They mean a menace of major proportion to the Communist Party.

Now let's take thirty seconds or so, if we may, to look a little further to see who is giving comfort to our enemies. Here is a Communist Daily Worker of March 9, containing seven articles and a principal editorial, all attacking McCarthy. And the same issue lists Mr. Murrow's program as -- listen to this! -- "One of tonight's best bets on TV." And then, just one more, here's the issue of March 17th. Its principal front-page article is an attack on McCarthy. It has three other articles attacking McCarthy. It has a special article by William Z. Foster, the head of the Communist Party in America (and now under indictment on charges of attempting to overthrow this government by force and violence) -- this article by Foster, praising Edward R. Murrow. Just one more, if I may impose on your time, the issue of March 26th. This issue has two articles attacking witch-hunting, three articles attacking McCarthy, a cartoon of McCarthy, and an article in praise of Mr. Edward R. Murrow.

And now I would like to also show you the Communist political organ, entitled Political Affairs. The lead article is a report dated November 21, 1953 of the National Committee of the Communist Party of the United States, attacking McCarthy and telling how the loyal members of the Communist Party can serve their cause by getting rid of this awful McCarthy.

And as you know Owen Lattimore has been named as a conscious, articulate instrument of the Communist conspiracy. He's been called in by the Senate Internal Security Committee. He is now under criminal indictment for perjury with respect to testimony in regard to Communist activities. In his book Ordeal by Slander, he says, "I owe a very special debt to a man I have never met. And I must mention at least Edward R. Murrow." Then there's a book by Harold Laski, admittedly the greatest Communist propagandist in England. In his book Reflections on the Revolution of Our Times he dedicates the book to "my friends E. R. Murrow and I. Tichaner, with affection." Now, I am perfectly willing to let the American people decide who's giving comfort to the enemy. Most of the documentation that we have here on the table tonight will not be available to the American people by way of television. However, this will all be made available to you within the next two weeks.

In conclusion, may I say that under the shadow of the most horrible and destructive weapons that man has ever devised, we fight to save our country, our homes, our churches, our children. To this cause, ladies and gentlemen, I have dedicated and will continue to dedicate all that I have and all that I am. And I want to assure you that I will not be deterred by the attacks on the Murrows, the Lattimores, the Fosters, the Daily Worker, or the Communist Party itself.

Now, I make no claim to leadership. In complete humility, I do ask you and every American who loves this country to join with me.

Murrow: That was film of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, presented at your invitation. It was in response to a program we presented on March 9th. This reporter undertook to make no comment at this time, but naturally reserved his right to do so subsequently.

Good night, and good luck.

Monday, November 29, 2004

The end of history is nigh

cagle

LGF says the new enemy is slashdot 'nerds'

Good to know Charles Johnson is winning over another constituency with his well-placed comments about 'whining nerds' on Slashdot...

Charles, you'll be the first to get a Lexmark cartridge up the sphincter when the revolution comes!

Friday, November 26, 2004

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Sorry for the pause in transmission...

...luckily someone else has picked up the baton of logic and is hitting LGFers over the head with it: Brit Blogger Dave Ray gets the loony lizards all whipped up over 'Islam Awareness Week'. And the funny thing is: he used to be one of them :-)))

(Hat Tip: LG)

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

LGF: Kevin Sites in its Sights

Loony lizard Charles 'Fuck Fallujah' Johnson has a new target to vent his hatred of the mainstream media at: NBC freelance Kevin Sites, the man who, says Charles, "handed the enemy their biggest propaganda victory since Abu Ghraib" (link). That enemy being what, Charles? Truth? Should Sites have kept his clap shut and his camera off while Marines were killing unarmed and dying Iraqi prisoners? Is that how the media should work in your world? All onside, gleichgeschaltet, and patriotic?

Hear this, NBC? Vrom now on you vill take ze orders from General Johnson, ja? Achtung, surrender!

Friday, November 12, 2004

An LGF equation: Right = Good, Left = Bad

Charles is absolutely incensed, INCENSED, about an article in the NY Times that poo-poohs Internet rumours of election miscounts in Florida. In a swipe at Daily Kos, Charles states:

"You’re single-handedly dragging the reputation of blogs into the gutter."
This is pretty heavy stuff, coming from the man who has helped spread the rumours that Arafat died of AIDS, that 380 tons of high explosives weren't stolen from Al Qaqaa, that the BBC was only going to have left-wingers on an election night discussion panel, that 'the Nazis' want Britain to apologise for the Second World War... you get the picture.

Boys and girls, if there's one blog that doesn't know the difference between fact and fiction, wishful thinking and reality, then it's Little Green Footballs. All the Daily Koses of the left don't reach the giddy heights of paranoia and delusion scaled by Charles F Johnson and his foolish followers.

Blogger Template Designers needed

We here are LGFWatch have been keeping tabs on those lousy lizards over at Little Green Footballs for, oh, ages now, and we think it's time the site got a facelift. So we'd like to invite you, our readers, to come forward with suggestions for a new design, or even a finished blogger template to make this site more accessible and useful to everyone. To get in touch, simply email lgfwatch@gmail.com .

Cheers!

How many Iraqis died in Bush's war?

The Economist, not noted for taking statistics lightly, says the figure of 100,000 civilians is realistic, though further study is necessary.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Free speech

Isn't it touching that Charles is getting all worked up about free speech these days? I wonder what he has to say about the latest disgraceful curtailnment of freedom of speech in Norway?

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

LGF: Terrorism against Muslims? Could be a good thing...

A friendly reader points us to the thread 'Muslim School Bombed in Netherlands'. It was started by Charles posting a news snippet about the Muslim school firebombed in the wake of Theo Van Gogh's murder. Now, one would have thought that most LGF readers were rabidly against terrorism and the targeting of civilians, let alone children. Indeed, one LGF poster, Beagle, states plainly: "I condemn all acts of terrorism.". But not all LGFers think that way. Here are some choice quotes:

----------
#2 Teacake! 11/8/2004 08:06AM PST

jihad for jihad

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#4 maf 11/8/2004 08:07AM PST

you reap what you sow

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#10 traveler 11/8/2004 08:08AM PST

Well, at least someone in the Netherlands is willing to stand up to those murderous savages.

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#12 Thom 11/8/2004 08:09AM PST

Good. If the government won't protect their citizens, what are the citizens supposed to do?

Do it themselves.

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#19 Marine Momma 11/8/2004 08:11AM PST

I hope they start bombing the mosques too.

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#38 Ringo the Gringo 11/8/2004 08:15AM PST

The murder of Theo Van Gogh may be the act that finally starts to turn the tide in Europe.

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#42 Bob G. 11/8/2004 08:16AM PST

It's not vigilantism, it's reciprocal sharia.

----------

To be fair, a lot of LGF posters do realise that by welcoming this act they are condoning terrorism, so they make it clear that bombing Muslim schools is neither effective nor justified. Whether this sentiment extends to shelling and carpet-bombing schools and wedding parties in Iraq is another matter...

What's interesting here, though, is how Charles fails to comment on the story at all. This is summed up succinctly by LGF poster Gordon, who says:

"And of course our ringmaster, Charles, stands above the fray, posting his little bombs on this site and then letting his rabid followers figure out which day is best on which to nuke Mecca. And he can smile that Cat-ate-the-canary grin and say 'prove it!'"
Signs of intelligent life on LGF? As more violence takes place against Muslims in the West, it will be interesting to see how the one-sided worldview of your average LGF reader, with Americans and Israelis as the only victims in this war, adapts.

Monday, November 08, 2004

It's the Stupidity, Stupid!

While Charles Johnson and other bloggers desperately try to find evidence that not all Bush-voters are ignorant fuckwits (we agree: a minority of them are intelligent but deluded fuckwits), Bob Herbert writing in the New York Times makes it clear: to vote for Bush you have to reject facts and embrace nonsensical 'values'.

PS: Just in: students voted for Buhs too!

Armageddon

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Stupid Americans

Ouch. What a hangover...and it's going to last at least FOUR MORE YEARS...

Let's get straight to the point, friends. This isn't a disaster: it might well be the end of the world. The United States, the world's most powerful state, is going to be led until 2008 by a pea-brained, smug, corrupt and volatile president whose administration has all the potential to take us to the brink of Armageddon. And judging by their Christian fundamentalist worldview, that could easily be their end goal.

So who is to blame? Yes, there's Fox News, Karl Rove, Rush, OBL, LGF & Co and the boy Bush himself, with his twin messages of: "We're all going to die, but trust me." But blaming the demagogues is too easy, because when it comes down to it America is a democracy in which the people still have access to a wide range of differing opinions and sources of information. The problem is, they don't care. While a record number of people turned out to vote (though 40% didn't!), more than half of them chose to re-elect a man who squandered America's economic advantage, initiated two futile wars causing the death of more than 1,000 coalition soldiers and 110,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilians, poured fuel onto the terrorists fires, and who will now take the US back to the 19th century in terms of social issues and personal freedoms.

If the election of George W Bush the first time round could be excused as a mistake (after all, he wasn't elected by the people but by the US Supreme Court), this time round the blame must be placed fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the American people. All of them. Republican voters may have been too stupid to know better, but Democrat voters failed when their country and the world needed them most. There can be no sympathy with those whiny Dems who now want to emigrate to Canada, England or France. You people fucked it up with your useless election campaigns and your half-hearted condemnation of Bush. Rather than leaving your country to fester for FOUR MORE YEARS, now is the time to throw your entire weight against this vile plutocratic regime and demonstrate to the rest of the world that not all of America stands behind president Bush.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

LGF on the US presidential election

Wow. Now Charles simply posts direct links to RNC press releases, under the heading 'How to steal an election' and without further comment: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13389.

Do you need any clearer indication that Mr Johnson is nothing more than a dangerously ignorant parrot when it comes to American politics?

A reader writes

Q. Who said of George W Bush: "The man is a dangerously ignorant
puppet"? Chomsky? Ted Rall? Michael Moore?

A. Charles Johnson, flip-flopper.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=1095#c0014

(Hat tip: Gifthorse)

What Bush thinks of America when the cameras are off

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Friday, October 29, 2004

380 tons of explosives

Ain't it funny when CJ starts spinning like a crazy top, trying desparately to defend the indefensible? Case in point: the story about the 380 'missing' tons of explosives in Iraq. Now, let's state from the outset that we here at LGFW have no inside info on what happened to the stuff, we're just following the news like everyone else. Let's see what the investigations show.

Charles, on the other hand, as given us all of the following explanations in the last 72 hours:

1) There NEVER WERE 380 tons of explosives at the dump, nope, no explosives at all. All of this is a smear story made up by Kerry/CBS/the French to discredit Bush yada yada yada... (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13297)

2) There never were 380 tons of explosives at the dump, ONLY 3 TONS. Anything else is a smear story made up by Kerry/CBS/the French to discredit Bush yada yada yada... (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13319)

3) The 380 tons of explosives were spirited away by the RUSSIANS before the war. Anything else is a smear story made up by Kerry/CBS/the French to discredit Bush yada yada yada... (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13318)

4) The 380 tons of explosives were spirited away by terrorists BEFORE the US got to the dump. Anything else is a smear story made up by Kerry/CBS/the French to discredit Bush yada yada yada... (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13295)

5) The 380 tons of explosives WERE secured by US forces. Anything else is a smear story made up by Kerry/CBS/the French to discredit Bush yada yada yada...(http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13338)

What do we learn from all of this? That, to Charles, it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you don't believe that the original story might be true. CJ is so caught up in the right-wing spin machine that he doesn't even realise how ridiculous he looks, firing off conspiracy theories left, right and center in the hope that one of them will stick. Here's some advice Charles: shut up until you've got some hard evidence, otherwise you're just leaving the gates wiiiiide open for us nasty loony leftists to drive explosive-filled trucks through your crazy theories.

Revealing the true nature of Little Green Footballs

The Revealer, a religion-focused zine ran a comment ('If Hitler was a blogger') the other day about how strange it was that a racist website like LGF should win a Washington Post blogging contest. Unsurprisingly, Charles couldn't take the flak and wrote a limp defense of his loony lizards' racist rantings (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13306)

Now, first of all, about the contest: it was a reader poll, meaning that since Charles got all his goons to vote for him, it wasn't much of a contest. Lizards on heat win hands down. We doubt Charles would have got into the Top Ten if it had been peer-reviewed or editor chosen. Such is democracy, and democracy sometimes throws up nasty results (see further: Bush, Adolf Hilter). But anyway, LGF won the International category (what, Cali is in a different country from DC?), good for Charles. He obviously needs the encouragement.


Second, the Revealer's comment about LGF being the blogging equivalent to Hitler in the Hofbrauhaus is quite astute: imagine someone back then had said: "Boy, this Hitler guy is like the Austrian equivalent of General Franco". They'd have been laughed at and then beaten up for daring to draw such nasty comparisons...

Still, do we think Charles = Hitler? No, though he's trying his best to match the evil Austrian in demagogery and small-mindedness. Lucky there's no fascist American party looking for a leader at the moment. We hear Charles' voice is nearly as whiny as the Fuehrer's was...

Third: Charles, don't you think it's a bit stupid to defend your minions against the accusation that they write abusive and threatening emails to those you denounce (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13339)? We've had them at LGFW, and we know what we're talking about. LGF readers are among the most foul mouthed users of email on this planet. They certainly beat the hell out of the islamist emails we've received in our time ('may Allah burn you in hell etc etc...'). Face it Charles, you stir the shit up, don't be surprised if your readers go feral. God knows, one day you're going to have blood on your hands when one of them goes out and shoot someone. If I were you, I'd start putting some more disclaimers on the site now, baby, otherwise good ole Charlie J is going to have soooome explaining to do one day.

No Sense of Humor LGF

Lots of interesting stories today, let's go in reverse-chronological order:

Top link (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13340): Charles just can't understand why the people at Daily Kos won't take a joke, after he called Markos Zuniga "a fanatical, deadly enemy of Western civilization" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13333_Interview_with_the_Enemy). Well, we here at LGFW can't see anything wrong with a good joke either, except it wasn't a good joke Charles, it was a lame one. Still, nothing to make a fuss about, we agree. We thought the joke about assassinating Bush was better though...

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Baghdad Burning writes

"Americans, the name of your country which once stood for ‘freedom and justice’ is tarnished worldwide. Your latest president has proved that the great American image of democracy is just that- an image. You can protest, you can demonstrate, you can vote- but it ends there. The reigns were out of your hands the moment Bush stepped into the White House. You were deceived repetitively and duped into two wars. Your sons and daughters are dying, and killing, in foreign lands. Your embassies are in danger all over the world. ‘America’ has become synonymous with ‘empire’, ‘hegemony’, and ‘warfare’. And why? All because you needed to be diverted away from the fact that your current president is a failure." Read on...

LGF: Only telling half the story (surprise, surprise)

From http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13304:

"'BBC World will also broadcast a special edition of ‘Question Time’ featuring film-maker and author Michael Moore, columnist Richard Littlejohn and former Bill Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal.' (link)

Now there’s a stellar panel."

Conveniently, Charles fails to link to the actual BBC report, which announces that "David Frum a former speechwriter to George W Bush who coined the phrase 'the axis of evil'" wil also be on the programme. Could it be that Charles didn't want his little lizardy friends to know this? (hat tip: BR)

Monday, October 25, 2004

Did we mention...

Republicans for Kerry?

Wooooooolves

Wolfpacksfortruth.org

LGF: Who's doing the talking?

One of the most frequent responses we receive from LGF fans, angry that their beloved website is described as racist or hypocritical, is that there is a big difference between what the posters on the comments page say and what Charles Johnson thinks. If a few people on the comments board say outrageous things, the line goes, then that shouldn't reflect badly on Charles because most people on LGF don't have such extreme views and "Charles didn't say it himself".

There is one big problem with this argument, namely that CJ frequently makes use of his moderator powers to censor views he doesn't agree with. If he did not at least tolerate expressions of racial hatred against Muslims, or calls for genocide, then he would remove the offending posts. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that Charles tacitly supports these views.

It is interesting, therefore, to see the great lizard himself make a fuss about two articles which appeared in Britain's Guardian newspaper, and which he identifies with the paper itself, rather than their respective authors. The first was a satirical column by Charlie Brooker deploring the Bush presidency which ended with the line "John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?". Anyone with an iota of sense would realise that this was a satirical piece, but obviously in times of heated political debate such as these that's too much to expect. Little surprise then that Charles headlined a post 'Guardian Calls for Bush to Be Assassinated' (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13269).

Not quite, Charles. CHARLIE BROOKER wrote the article, and it was satirical. Clearly the Guardian has editorial responsibility for the the content of its pages, and this is made clear by the clarification that was printed in the Guardian TWICE as a result of outraged lizardoids & Co flooding the Grauniad's email inboxes. Can we expect Charles to take the same responsibility for items posted on LGF?

The second post, while drawing fewer angry responses from LGFers, displays the same ignorance of how newspapers work and even of how to read them. Under the headline 'Guardian Lunacy in Full Flower', Charlie-boy writes:

Britain’s Guardian newspaper says William Shakespeare was probably a Muslim. (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13276)
Ehm, no, Charles. The article didn't say 'Shakespeare was probably a Muslim'. It said that "HIS WORK resembles the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect" and that "the playwright was a member of a religious or spiritual order which can BEST BE COMPARED TO the philosophy of Sufism". Also, it may have been printed in the Guardian, but it was Dr Martin Lings, a 96-year old scholar who made this claim, not the paper itself. But that has never stopped Charles from brewing up another foul broth of anti-Muslim, anti-Leftist sentiment and hurl it at his slobbering readers...

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Friday, October 22, 2004

Two murders - no justice

'A schoolgirl riddled with bullets. And no one is to blame'

'Guava in Jabalia: First Bite, Last Breath'

This is the reason why Gideon Levy writes in Haaretz: 'Killing children is no longer a big deal' (and, yes, it's a mark of Israel's free press that Levy is able to write articles such as these: we all know the equivalent wouldn't appear in a PA paper)

Not keeping it in the family

Woah! Even Bush II's relatives don't want him to get a second term: Bush relatives for Kerry

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Blind faith in Bush

"Here it comes again, that sinking feeling. Four years ago I travelled across the US, following the presidential campaign, and came away alarmed that Al Gore was not doing enough to win an election that should have been his. Now I have that same queasy feeling - except this time it's not only about the simple matter of who will win and who will lose on November 2. Now it's a deep concern about what is happening to the United States itself."

Read the entire article here Faith against Reason

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Who's looking over Charles' shoulder?

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'The moonbats will surely download this thread and put it under their pillows'

First, take a look at this cartoon:



Now take a look at this thread on Little Green Footballs, specifically the comments: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13186_Apologizing_to_the_Nazis#comments

Notice how Charles and the LGF crew are a textbook example of the kind of neo-con Chinese Whispers machine that the US mass media have become? Picking out half-understood soundbites and building massive memes that lack any foundation apart from what what their vicious little lizard minds have imagined? In this thread, Charles reports on a ceremony to commemorate those killed in the carpet bombing of the North German town of Brunswick (aka Braunschweig). But instead of writing about the intention of the ceremony (hint, the original headline was: 'British bid to mend war scars'), Charles reinterprets the story as: 'Apologizing to the Nazis'.

Let's get this straight: 1) The British ambassador made it clear that he wasn't apologising, merely commemorating the dead. 2) Even if the British had apologised for needlessly killing so many civilians, this would not have equalled apologising to the Nazis. It would have been an apology to the civilians who suffered. 3) Is Charles saying that the Nazis attended the ceremony, patiently accepting a heartfelt apology from a former enemy? Because that's certainly what he implies with the way he portrays the story. And it wouldn't be surprising if Charles actually believe this, considering the way he and his scaly scum regard Europe in general as anti-Semitic and Germany in particular as a hotbed of fascism.

Just how misinformed you become if you read only the right-wing drivel that LGFers seem to draw sustenance from is demonstrated in the first few comments of that thread when outraged lizardoids howl: "I wonder if Germany will apologize for Coventry." We wonder where these people have been for the last 60 years? Germany has apologised, paid pennance and admitted unqualified guilt for the atrocities it committed from 1933 to 1945. But that kind of thing squares uncomfortably with the notion that the lizard crew has of Germany as a Fourth Reich, waiting to unleash terror on the world once again. Yes, Germans were Nazis, are Nazis, and always will be Nazis, at least that is the view of LGF regulars like 'Bigel', who additionally believes that the best thing to do would be to nuke the entire continent (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13113#c0075).

The sad descent of this thread into an all-out hatefest is brightened only by three things:

1) There are clearly some people on LGF with a conscience (e.g. reaganite)
2) The thread will serve as a good example of lizard lunacy in future
3) It's always a joy to puncture the empty arguments of Charles' cronies with a simple google search:


#582 Powderfinger 10/16/2004 08:29PM PST

[...]

Show me where he says "Nuke Europe now"

Otherwise, you're being dishonest.


http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8354#c0051

Saturday, October 16, 2004

Who's the bos?

I think we have a new friend in the War Against Evil(tm): http://warcheerleaders.tripod.com/

Household issues

Charles asks: "Little Green Footballs: Soon to Be a Household Name?" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13160).

The LGFW team thinks Charles might well be right on this one. LGF has a certain ring to it, like Watergate and Enron...

Mutiny in Iraq?

BBC report:

US troops 'refused Iraq mission'

The US military has confirmed it is investigating allegations that members of a reserve US army unit in Iraq refused to undertake a convoy mission.

The unit involved is responsible for transporting food, water and fuel for US-led forces, a top US official said.

Up to 19 soldiers from the unit based near Talil in southern Iraq allegedly failed to carry out their orders.

The news came amid reports that UK troops could be sent to back up the US in some of Iraq's most volatile areas.

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Friday that discussions were under way but no decision had been taken as yet.

It is believed the troops could be sent from Basra in southern Iraq to an area south of Baghdad, and might - controversially - be under US command.

In other developments in Iraq:

A mortar explodes outside a Baghdad hospital killing one member of staff and injuring several others
A wave of attacks hits at least five Christian churches in the capital Baghdad
A US soldier dies of wounds sustained in a car bomb attack on a convoy in the northern city of Mosul on Friday
The UN says Thursday's bombings in Baghdad's Green Zone have underlined its concern about security in Iraq.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Private Eye sees right through George Bush

LGFers seethe, whine at Guardian campaign

As we reported yesterday, the Guardian is asking its readers to write to voters in Clark County, Ohio, and let them know their views on the upcoming US presidential elections. As expected, the LGF crew is foaming at the mouth about this 'outside intervention'. Here's a typical LGFer reaction:

--------
#7 Nukeitall 10/13/2004 08:55AM PST


I find the very thought that outside forces would have a hand in the US elections...disgusting.[...]
--------


Well well well. Are these the same people who call incessantly for regime change, who believe they have a right to influence who the elected leaders of every other country around the globe are, who support the use of violence in overthrowing democratic governments? And these people can't take a friendly letter? America, we fear for you.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

On one of Charlie's loonies

Charles Johnson's final posting last night was a link to a 'fisking' performed by a certain Jeff Harrell on Markos Moulitsas' web column for the Guardian. Going straight to Harrell's piece, we get the following pretty early on:

Notice, please, the preemptive whine that Markos slipped in when he thought you weren't paying attention: "all the flaws in the US electoral process." The reason the Democratic Party can't get a dog catcher elected these days doesn't have anything to do with the party's increasing self-marginalization, its fervent hold on positions that America soundly rejects. And it doesn't have anything to do with the Democrats' universal denial of the single most important issue to voters: the war. And it doesn't have anything to do with the overall climate of unpleasantness that the Democrats have created over the past four years.


Now correct us if we're wrong, but isn't Harrell making the grave mistake of trying to slip something in while his readers are still too alert to miss it?

"the Democratic Party can't get a dog catcher elected these days" - with 205 Democrats (vs 227 Republicans) in Congress and 48 Democrats (vs 51 Republicans) in the Senate, the Democrats aren't doing too badly, not to speak of the dead heat that is the current US presidential elections. Who cares about dog catchers?

"its fervent hold on positions that America soundly rejects" - now hold your horses: Harrell claims to know that 'America', as a whole, all of it, every US citizen, rejects the positions of the Democratic Party? Bullshit.

"the Democrats' universal denial of the single most important issue to voters: the war" - The DEMOCRATS have been denying the war? Jeez, and we thought it was Georgie and Co who were sticking their heads in the sand over the miserable failure that is the Iraq campaign, let alone the War on Terror.

"the overall climate of unpleasantness that the Democrats have created over the past four years" - as in voter intimidation in Florida practised by the Republicans in 2000? As in smear campaigns against the Democratic candidate's wife (reminiscent of those against Mrs Clinton)? As in warning that if Kerry is elected there will be more 9/11s? As in bombing the hell out of civilians and claiming you're doing it in the name of freedom? Unpleasantness, it seems, lies in the eye of the beholder...

Harrell doesn't get much better as his piece goes on. Read it and send him friendly comments if you must, but it's not exactly a tour de force of political argumentation. You're better off getting involved with the Guardian's swing state project.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Kiss kiss

Ahhhh, isn't that sweet? They love each other after all....But wait! What's that strange fold on the back of Bush's suit? Is Bush wired? Or maybe he's just earthed?

How are things going in Iraq, now that Saddam is gone?

Not so good, apparently. Someone is stealing equipment and materials that could be used to build nuclear weapons (is it the Iranians, is it Al Qaeda?) and Iraqi adults and children live in constant fear of abduction at the hand of criminal gangs (RealPlayer audio report). Mission accomplished, eh?

Monday, October 11, 2004

Who is Dick Cheney?

CBC has the details on the American Vice-President. (Hat Tip PKJ)

Iraq War results so far

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Bush's bulge

Well waddayaknow: Charles got round to acknowledging the 'Is Bush wired?' story after Salon and the NYT ran articles on it (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13069).

Apparently, the Republican consensus is that the bulge is simply 'a pucker along the jacket's back seam', which raises the question why the President of the United States of America puts up with such bad tailoring...

Friday, October 08, 2004

A reader writes

G asks: "After Charlie posted so much about Kerry's pen, do you think he'll run
with this story from Salon, about Bush having a radio receiver to receive messages?"

We think Charles is going to ignore this until the facts become too overwhelming for him not to comment on it - and then he'll dismiss the story as irrelevant.

Five Minutes Silence

...from Bush jr would have been better than the pityful performance he gave during the first debate. If you've forgotten what he said, here is a summary: 'What Bush said'.

Now lets see what Dubya does this time round :-/

LGF Racism

A reader points us to a comment we missed a while back:

_______________________________________________
#24 Rayra 9/25/2004 08:04PM PST

ulululululululululu!

The Best kind of "Palestinian" -
[Debka 11hrs ago] Zarqawi's Palestinian No. 2 Dies in US Targeted
Assassination
_______________________________________________

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12824#c0024

Remember kids, it's this kind of mentality that informs the LGF crew. They may not say it in public, but this is the true face of Charles Johnson and Co, make no mistake about it.

LGF: Telling it like it is...half of it

Yes indeed, Charles Johnson is a purveyor of truths. At least that is what his scaley minions seem to think. We mortals only ever get to see half the truth on LGF. Take today's offerings: '9/11 Families Speak' reports what a particular group among all the families affected by 9/11 think (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13039. No mention of the fact that there are other families who don't believe that Bush is doing the right thing. Who cares about the whole truth? Not the lizards...

Next on the list: 'Kerry's Vanished Draft Proposal' (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13038). Readers of this headline might get the impression that Kerry had tried to force every American youngster to serve in the military. In fact, Kerry's plan was to introduce the kind of national service found in some European countries, where school-leavers engage in a wide range of services ranging from helping the elderly, sick and vulnerable, to receiving a year of military training. This is a little bit different from Republican plans to force every young person in the States to register for military draft with the possibility of combat posting. Shame this distinction is lost on the pea-brainers at LGF.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Lies and the lying liars that don't report them

Oi veh, the LGFWatch crew goes away for a few days and comes back to find Charles of LittleGreenFootballs still peddling his nasty racist wares, writing wank-lit for aspiring neocons and generally ignoring the real world. Want an example? While dwelling on the issue of forbidden pens in presidential debates for half a dozen posts, Charles Johnson completely fails to mention that Cheney lied on camera during the Veep debate. As AP notes, "among Cheney's retorts was a slam at the first-term North Carolina senator's attendance record in Congress. Cheney noted that, as Vice President, he presides over the Senate, then told Edwards pointedly, 'The first time I ever met you was when we walked on stage tonight.' A sly dig, to be sure. Also false: Cheney had met Edwards twice before. But Edwards let it slide at least until his post-debate rally."

A simple oversight on Charlie's part? We think not. Oh well, back to the grindstone...

Friday, September 24, 2004

The blinkered pundits

Danny Schechter tells it like it is: what happens when LGFers come to town

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Bush: encouraging decapitation in order to save face

As the fate of Kenneth Bigley hangs in the balance, disturbing news is emerging from Iraq that America might have ordered the continued detainment of one of the female prisoners Bigley's kidnappers demand be released.

Why would the US do such a thing, when a joint committee of Iraqi governing council deputees and US military already decided it was safe to release her? The answer, apparently, is that America is scared it might be seen as weak if the Iraqi scientist in question appeared to be released at the demand of the kidnappers.

Never mind that her release merely coincides with this kidnapping; the message from the US is: we're more concerned about not appearing weak or merciful than saving the life of a foreign citizen.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Bush = Hitler, Left = Fascists

Charles Johnson really doesn't like it when people compare his favourite president with Adolf Hitler, or Karl Rover with Hermann Goering. Images like the one below are regularly held up by CJ as an example of the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of "the Left", and some might argue he has a point: what, after all, is to be gained from putting Bush and Hitler on one level?

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How nice, then, that our friend Charles isn't averse to drawing the odd questionable comparison himself. Witness one of his latest posts, in which he describes the murky forces he suspects were behind the CBS memo as "the farthest of the far left, the new fascists" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12754). Charles at his hypocritical best...

UPDATE: We wonder what Charles will have to say about this Frontpage Magazine article, which ends with the lines:

"[Churcharson.com] reminds me of another gang that thought its rule would last 1,000 years. As they helped destroy synagogues on Kristallnacht, Adolf’s Adolescent Auxiliary sang: 'We are joyous Hitler Youth. We have no need of Christian virtue. Our leader is our savior. The pope and rabbi shall be gone. We shall be pagans again.' Or, at the very least, Democrats."
So, Hitler youth = pagans = atheists = Democrats? That's quite a line of stupid comparisons. But you'd expect that from a right-wingnut publication like Frontpage, wouldn't you?

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

LGF is non-partisan: honest!

Charlie has "a small correction for the record" regarding an article in the NY Post which describes him as "a California jazz musician and Web site designer who has never voted Republican". Charles would like to set the record straight by noting that "I voted Republican for the first time in 2003, for Arnold Schwarzenegger" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12736). Fair enough, the Charlie-puss always pounces when mainstream media get their facts wrong.

Strange though that Charles doesn't quibble the argument that his bohemian taste in music and non-Republican voting history somehow inoculate him from being described as a "partisan operative". One would have thought that the person behind a website which runs item after item glorifying the Great Leader (Bush) and demonising the Great Satan (Kerry) would have welcomed the label 'partisan'...

Al Qaeda profits from Bush policies

Charles Johnson thinks al Qaeda wants John Kerry to win (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12722).

The British ambassador in Rome thinks otherwise: "If anyone's ready to celebrate the eventual re-election of Bush, it is none other than al-Qaeda"

Monday, September 20, 2004

The Bush records Charles Johnson isn't interested in

"His public records paint a portrait of a Guardsman who, with the cooperation of his Texas Air National Guard superiors, simply flouted regulation after regulation (more than 30 by Salon's count) indifferent to his signed obligation to serve."

Bush economics

On Charles Johnson, George Bush and little girls

A regular reader has pointed out a story on LGF we nearly missed over the weekend about a 3-year old girl whose Bush/Cheney sign was ripped up by Kerry 'thugs' - a story that sent LGFers into a frenzy of astute polito-sociological observations like: "LIBERALS ARE FACISTS AND NAZIS" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12660#comments)

Whether or not the story happened the way the LGFers like to imagine is secondary to the blatant hypocrisy which surfaces here: had the girl been a Palestinian child taking part in a political demonstration there would have been whoops of joy from the Lizard crowd if she'd received a direct hit from an Israeli missile. But such double standards are to be expected from people whose life-experience seems to consist only of what they see on screen.

What, we wonder, would the LGF crowd have done if they had encountered the 11-year old Iraqi girl we were privileged to meet the other day? This girl's entire family, apart from her father, was killed when a cluster bomb was dropped on their home in Basra last year by a US warplane. She herself lost a leg in the attack. Despite seeing and suffering the horrors of war first-hand, she is a lively, intelligent and friendly child, who gleefully set the table for our meal and urged us to keep eating far beyond the point where our stomachs could take any more, all the time jabbering away in Arabic.

She is learning English fast and is being looked after by people who were vilified on LGF not so long ago for their peace activism. What would the LGF crowd, if they could tear themselves away from fake memos and ripped-up placards for a moment, say to this girl, whose life has been irrevocably damaged by George Bush's war? And what would they say to the people who have risked their lives to get her out of Iraq in order to give her a chance of growing up and leading a normal life?

Friday, September 17, 2004

Back to his old tricks?

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Speaking of media bias...

While the left-wing, pinko, manhattan media covertly supports Kerry (according to Charles and Co), the right-wing media have no problem openly coming out in favour of the incumbent. Take a look at this nice little announcement on Rush Limbaugh's website:

"I made an official announcement to open the program today. I have become, and have been for a while, an official, unpaid advisor to the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, and we decided to go public with this because there's no problem with it whatsoever."

Oh, so there's no problem whatsoever? Well that's alright then. As long as you say so, Rush.

BTW, nice to see you're still combating media bias...
"Your Resource for Combating the Partisan Media, Liberals and Bush-Haters..."

A reader writes

"...there is an interesting item on LGF "European press ignoring CBS document forgery story", or something to that effect (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12623). Strange, Charles is suddenly interested in the Euro-press, the same one he asked "Who the f*ck cares!?" when some poll was published showing Bush is very unpopular compared to John Kerry throughout the world. I suppose this is similar to his referring to Reuters as either Reuters or Al Reuters, depending on whether the story is useful to him personally or not.

I am continually amazed at the content of that site. Amazing that there are so many hateful people... I have posted little bits of fact here and there, and been angrily shouted down with insults and profanity. They don't like truth at LGF - especially when linked to the real stories...

After a brief, strange obsession with fonts and type, Charles is getting back to what he does best: fan the flames of hatred.

Although sometimes horrifying and upsetting, I think it worthwhile to see the same story covered so differently in the left and right wing weblogs. I simply can't imagine how much dirtier and more hateful things are going to get as we inch closer to the most important presidential election in my 40 years..."

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Fact checking LGF style

Charles Johnson, head Lizard honcho and scourge of all things forged, has been riding on the crest of a wave of Bush-supporting self-righteous indignation over the apparently forged memos aired by CBS's 60 Minutes programme recently. With his typographical expertise Johnson was one of the first to spot that something was amiss with the memos, subjecting them to intense scrutiny and finally pronouncing them FORGED!! Never mind the fact that the core of CBS's story (that President Bush had received special treatment during the Vietnam War, exempting him from frontline fighting duty) remains true: Charles Johnson saw this malicious forgery as further evidence that the mainstream media are loony lefties covertly in cahoots with John Kerry.

Little wonder, then, that Mr LGF gleefully posted articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) appearing in the press over the last few days which praised the blogosphere as a serious check on irresponsible journalism.

And wouldn't it be wonderful if things were that easy and journalists were being followed everywhere they went by honest, diligent and hard-working citizens prepared to scrutinize their work and expose the lies and slanders they write?

Unfortunately for Johnson and his right-wing blogger cohorts, this picture of unbiased reporter-watching by and for the media consuming masses is a little off the mark. Here at LGF Watch we have been chronicling Charles Johnson's lies and deceipts for a while now, so in order to add a bit of fairness and balance to the blog celebration let's look at some of Charles Johnson's recent exploits:

LGFgate I:

Under the heading 'Terrorist Supporters in LA' CJ posts a picture of a man dressed as a suicide bomber holding up a sign that reads: "Hamas says no wall" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8871). Johnson comments: "Good lord. This happened yesterday at Palisades Park in Los Angeles," and links to an Indymedia page with pictures of a protest in LA. The headline, the comment and the picture make it look like protesters were openly declaring themselves supporters of Hamas and suicide bombings. In fact, the person pictured by Charles is a member of a counter demonstration and has nothing to do with the original protest. Lying or just economical with the facts? You decide.

LGFgate II:

CJ kicks off an angry posting about British MP Jenny Tonge with the line "British Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge apparently never learned that when you’re in a hole, you need to stop digging—because her latest dispatch finds her not just sympathizing with suicide bombers, but hanging out with them." (our emphasis; http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=9882)

In fact, anyone reading Tonge's original article would find that she starts thus: "My remarks last month, expressing empathy with suicide bombers, had been misinterpreted by the tabloids as meaning sympathy and approval."

Similarly, linking to a post on Billmon's Whiskey Bar, Johnson claims that Billmon said the four American mercenaries killed in Fallujah "deserved it" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=10425). The fact is that Billmon said nothing of the sort.

Now misinterpreting what someone says or writes is one thing, but consciously reporting something that isn't true is another.

LGFgate III:

One of CJ's favourite tricks is posting stories of apparently horrific abuse or racism, without following them up. Now we know Charles is only an amateur journalist, but if he finds the time to post dozens of items about typography on his website every day you would think he might take an interest in developments that have occured in stories he has highlighted in the past. Not so in the case of the 'anti-Semitic attack' on the Paris Metro in July (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=11670). Or the 'anti-Semitic arson', also carried out in Paris (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12253). Both stories turned out quite different in the end, but because that end didn't suit Charles ... he didn't report it.

Finally, let us not forget that, for a long time, Charles Johnson maintained that no torture had occured in Abu Ghraib prison, an opinion he seemed to base solely on his privileged observer position behind a computer screen in California.

What all of this goes to show is that Charles Johnson believes in journalistic virtue and integrity only when and if it suits him. He will happily distort the truth to suit his own ends, and completely fails to report instances where journalism has caught out the politicians he so loves. At the moment Johnson is nothing more than a drone for the 're-elect Bush' campaign. Anything posted by him should be taken with more than a pinch of salt.

*tokka tokka CH-CHUNG tokka tokka DING*

The definitive guide to memos and typography

Charles Johnson's priorities UPDATE

Number of times Charles Johnson has recently commented on:

The potential for Israel to be engulfed by civil war: 0

Veracity of a military memo about George W Bush aired on a US TV network: 50 +

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Hijacking Catastrophe

Reader PKJ sends us a link to an interesting video about the way in which the Neo-Cons have used fear to take control of America

Monday, September 13, 2004

They're not soldiers, they're terrorists

The Daily Telegraph reports that "a television journalist was shot dead as he made a live broadcast from Baghdad yesterday when United States helicopters fired on a crowd that had gathered round the burning wreckage of an American armoured vehicle."

Mazen al-Tumeizi was a) a Palestinian, b) a journalist and c) working for Al-Arabiya TV. Expect the LGF crowd to whoop and cheer with joy.

Charles Johnson's priorities

Number of postings Charles Johnson has made in the last week on:

US military deaths in Iraq exceeding 1,000: 0

Veracity of a military memo about George W Bush aired on a US TV network: 37

Bush likes guns, Osama likes guns

Friday, September 10, 2004

The Bushs, the Bin Ladens, and the Islamic Bomb

While Charles Johnson gets all typographical over a memo about Bush aired on CBS, we've been following with interest another story about a far more interesting memo: 199-I.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Dick Cheney: liability for America

"Cheney's manner and authority of voice far outstrip his true abilities," says Chas Freeman, who served under Bush's father as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "It was clear from the start that Bush required adult supervision -- but it turns out Cheney has even worse instincts. He does not understand that when you act recklessly, your mistakes will come back and bite you on the ass." From Rolling Stone

Who cares what the rest of the world thinks?

For a hysterical (in every sense of the word) example of the kind of xenophobia prevalent among LGF regulars, take a look at this thread: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12514#comments.

These are the very same people who spend most of their time demanding so-and-so be elected/deposed/killed in Iran/Iraq/Syria/Israel/Britain/Spain/Germany/Venezuela etc. Their argument is always: it would make America and the rest of the world a safer place. But when the rest of the world expresses an opinion about who would make a better US president, the sentiment on LGF, to quote 'American Infidel', is : "Mind your own business world"

Hypocritters, the lot of them.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Kids and soldiers

"I cannot stop thinking about all those young lives. Those kid soldiers. And all for what?"

Fisking LGF

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Charles Johnson likes to pretend he's always one step ahead of those darstardly mainstream journalists, fact-checking their ass and blowing their nasty propaganda clean outta the water. The problem is, Charlie will only fact-check selectively, when it suits him, not when it could undermine his argument or that of the people he supports. Here's a short list of recent 'facts' conspicuously CJ failed to check:

1) Hallucinating Arnie

Arnold 'Terminator' Schwarzengger really delivered a killer speech at the GOP convention last week, even going so far as calling his opponents "girlie men". Wow, class or what?! Anyway, Arnie also told a little anecdote about his childhood growing up in Austria, which according to Arnie became a "socialist country" after 1955. This must come as some shock to the Austrian people, who all along thought they had elected conservative chancellors in the years from 1945 to 1970. Arnie left Austria in 1966.

2) French Anti-Semitism 'Watch'

Charles Johnson loves labelling the French as anti-Semitic, so when a Jewish community centre in Paris went up in flames he naturally rubbed his hands with glee and posted some news items about the incident, stressing the possibility that the act of arson might have been committed by Muslims (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12253). One might argue that, in doing so, he was merely echoing what the press and politicians in France and elsewhere were reporting about the incident. Fair enough. Strange though that he hasn't found time to follow-up the latest revelation in this story: that it might have been one of the users of the community centre who set it alight:

'Jew suspected in Paris arson faces jail' (Jpost)

'Jewish man arrested in Paris arson' (IHT)

'Jew may have torched Paris soup kitchen' (Haaretz)

3) Charles cheers too soon

On Sunday 4 September Charles announced the capture of one of Saddam Hussein's deputies, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Like everyone else, he had been fooled by press releases from the Iraqi interim government announcing al-Douri's capture. By Sunday it had become clear that the person apprehended wasn't al-Douri. As yet, Charles has made no mention of this fact...

Monday, September 06, 2004

GOP Child Abuse

By request of the photographer, this image has been removed. To see pictures of how the Republican Party has been cloning Dick Cheney and other scary images from the RNC, go here.

LGF: finally seeing sense?

It might have been the sheer weight of the number of emails Charles Johnson received in response to his ill-judged question whether "anyone [has] heard a a single Islamic leader, anywhere in the world, condemn this bloody savagery committed in the name of their religion". In any case he's finally relenting and admitting that maybe, just maybe, some of them have condemned the massacre.

So far he has posted articles by Abdel Rahman al-Rashed (Head of Al Arabiya TV, see also his radio interview), Saudi Prince Abdullah, and a link to a piece about Ahmed Baghat and Mohammed Sayed Tantawi.

Who knows, maybe there is still hope that CJ will finally lift his veil and read Arab media beyond what is translated by MEMRI?

Sunday, September 05, 2004

LGF: seeing what it wants to see

Charles Johnson posted an item the other day about Saddam Hussein having come "'within a whisker' of purchasing a complete, off-the-shelf nuclear device from Abdul Qadeer Khan’s Islamic nuclear black market." (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12462), a 'fact' uncovered by a recent BBC radio series on the proliferation of ABC weapons. What Charles conveniently ignores is another episode in that series. I wonder why...


"Allan Urry also examines USA's rush to carry out research designed to protect the West against the attack by a dirty bomb.

Since it was discovered that Al-Qaeda has been trying to acquire biological weapons, the USA has poured billions of dollars into what it terms "bio-defence". finding a way to protect communities from the devastation of an anthrax or smallpox attack by terrorists.

But the BBC revelas a disturbing catalogue of blunders and security lapses by the US authorities.

some deadly pathogens used in the laboratories are being flown around the world by in the jacket pockets of scientists travelling through international airports; others are simply missing from the laboratories.

The programme also hears that US' vast spending on bio-defence is hiding secret military research, banned under international treaties.

Critics say that this is pushing the world closer to a biological arms race."
Listen to this episode here

Friday, September 03, 2004

The War on Terror will never end

"On Monday this week, President Bush had a moment of clarity. He was speaking on NBC television, replying to the simple question, 'Can America win the War on Terror?' 'No,' he said, his eyes drifting away from the autocue, momentarily losing their glaze. 'Of course it fucking can't," he said. "Are you insane? Do you understand nothing? The whole point of the War on Terror is that it never *ever* ends. We made a big mistake with the Cold War, but with the fall of Communism we realised that our next boogie-man would have to be as vague as it was terrifying, as universally-applicable as it was specific-seeming. We knew we'd have to declare war on something which was endlessly renewable, and something with which we could easily tie in all of our other bigotries. We chose Terror. We're really rather clever you know. In a slightly Satanic way. And no, the War on Terror will never *ever* end...'"
From The Friday Project

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Airy-fairy Charlie dismisses 'stupid' attack on Bush

Proving once again that no matter how dumb a comment Bush makes, Charlie 'who is a man' Johnson will defend him, here are some choice cuts from yesterday's posting (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12393):

President Bush's retraction of a statement that "the war against terror cannot be won" is, according to CJ, an "absurdly trumped-up story" which his detractors are highlighting "as if it were important". What, the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military force in the world, the king-pin of the world oligopoly saying one thing and then saying the opposite is unimportant? Charlie-logic par excellence.

Lost for argument as to why this is a non-issue, CJ comes up with the line: "making an issue out of something like this is just ... well ... stupid." Bingo. What a brain. Then he goes on to say: "Bush could easily have defended his original statement (there’s a lot of truth in it, on many levels)." Many levels? What levels exactly are you talking about? Care to elaborate? Do you really think Bush can think "on many levels"?

Jesus save us from these people in November.

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Books against Bush

"What We've Lost: How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Freedoms, Ravaged the Environment and Damaged America and the World is a book that has been assembled rather more than written. With great recourse to lists and bullet-point breakdowns, it audits Bush's shortcomings across every department of government, opening each chapter with one of the president's goofy quotes ("It's clearly a budget. It's got lots of numbers in it") then slamming home wave after wave of damning facts and anecdotes: that Bush tried to reclassify "manufacturing" jobs to include people who worked in fast-food joints; that teachers in Missouri were ordered to remove every third light bulb from schools to save money; that parents of soldiers in Iraq were in some cases forced to buy their children's own body-armour vests ("$1,500 retail"), plus hundreds of statistics attesting to Bush's failure to help America's poor, sick and discriminated against. The result is so overwhelming that it reads a little as if someone has fed "Bush, presidency, fuck up" into a search engine on the internet and loosely organised the results. Carter says he intended to write a short handbook, but that the more he and his researchers looked into it, the longer the book got."
Link

Friday, August 27, 2004

Charles Johnson's racist agenda

Every once in a while we get emails from LGF readers asking: "Why do you say LGF is racist? Even if some people make racist comments on the LGF message board, that's not Charles' fault. Charles simply tells it like it is."

That this is not the case is easy enough to demonstrate: yesterday, Charles posted an item about a murder that took place thousands of miles away from where most of his readers live, a murder that has nothing to do with Macs, webdesign, cycling, anti-Semitism, Iraq or the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The murder took place in New Zealand: a young man killed a young woman by dousing her with fuel and setting her alight, after she broke off their relationship. Tragic as this case is, such things happen all over the world, and would go unnoticed by Charles were it not for the fact that the perpetrator and the victim have Muslim-sounding names (whether they are Muslim or not is not clear). This alone is the cue for Charles to pick up a story, post it where hundreds of thousands of people will read it, and headline the item: "Honor Killing in New Zealand" (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12316).

No other news report suggests that this was an 'honor killing'. Nevertheless, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean Charles F Johnson knows an honor killing when he sees one, and can't resist holding this gruesome murder up as another example of how barbarous Muslims are. Does that not strike you as racist?

PS: There is one Antipodean story about honour killing that Charles won't be mentioning: 'Police query honour killing claim'

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

The Liberation of Paris

An interesting radio clip on why the liberation of Paris happened how it did, and what it meant for future French-American relations (RealPlayer required): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/rams/0800_france.ram

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Islam: no, no, no!

Charles has an obsession and that obsession is called Islam. He has now posted at least two threads on his weblog attacking the idea that there might have been Muslims on Columbus' voyage to America (one: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12276 , two: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12262_Dhimmitude_101).

Charles, why do you CARE about this?

Kerry, Bush and the Swiftboat 'Veterans'

"Vietnam war veteran and Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry has been ambushed and, for the moment, remains caught in enemy fire. Having made his five-month stint of decorated service in Vietnam the heart of his platform, it is now emerging as his achilles heel.

A group of veterans financed by Republicans from Texas and close to President George Bush are airing ads calling him a liar for the claims he has made about his service and suggesting that he did not come by his military medals honestly. Their case is shoddy, given that none of the Swift-boat Veterans for Truth were with Kerry at the time and their claims have been refuted by those who were. Their motivation is shabby, as most of them are piqued by the fact that Kerry returned home to campaign against the war. All of which makes the fact that their attacks have had such a huge impact that much more revealing.

For since the ads began screening, Kerry's slight lead in the polls has been shaved away. Two weeks ago, before the ads appeared, he was running even with Bush among the nation's 26 million veterans. Now Bush has a 24-point lead. The issue dominating the news cycle is not what is happening in Najaf today but what happened in the Mekong delta 35 years ago."

There are three things we can learn from this. First, there is no level to which Republicans will not stoop to besmirch a character, belittle an issue or befuddle the electorate. Second, there is no level to which the Democrats will not stoop to attempt to neutralise these attacks. And third, that the Republicans will always win in this race to the bottom because so much less is expected of them and, when it comes to muck-slinging, they have no qualms about getting their hands dirty.


Read the rest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1288586,00.html