....from the pro-torture right. Courtesty of those wannabe nazis at LGF.
#24 ajf 9/29/2005 11:07AM PDT(ht BR)
What I want to see is some pictures and video of ACLU members being tortured (and none of that high school hazing stuff either.)
Friday, September 30, 2005
Another quote....
Tapes Prove Police Lied
The Brazilian family of a man killed by Metropolitan police officers have seen video evidence that proves that the original police version of events were false and that senior officials lied about the circumstances.
De Menezes' brother, Giovani, said the tapes supported the family's belief that police lied about the case.Link
"The film showed that Jean did not have suspicious behavior. For sure they (police) lied to the family," he said.
De Menezes' mother, Maria Otone de Menezes, said Wednesday her son had been treated "like a mad dog" and called for the arrest of the officers responsible for his death. The family toured the subway station Wednesday.
Harriet Wistrich, a lawyer representing the family, read a statement to reporters after Thursday's viewing of the videotapes.
"It was very distressing to see how completely relaxed and normal Jean Charles appeared, particularly in the light of statements made immediately after his death," the statement said.
Police said immediately after the incident that the shooting was directly linked to the bombing attempts the day before. Police also did not immediately contradict media reports that Menezes was acting suspiciously, wearing a bulky coat and had jumped the subway turnstile.
Images of the scene showed Menezes wearing a jean jacket. He was unarmed.
Police repeatedly apologized for the killing but deny covering up what happened. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair says his officers must have the right to shoot to kill in some cases.
Menezes family members, including the dead man's parents, met with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the incident.
Sadly, yes. They are that mad.
Sadly, No! has a great piece on the LGF madness.
When did LGF step over the line from being a mean-tempered rightist site to being an actual, by-the-book, calling-Hannah-Arendt locus of everything that America fought to defeat in World War II?Read it all.
Future historians will quarrel, but progress was made today, with this entry (plus comments) on the new Abu Ghraib release. It's not the boldest of items there, but it's telling in its own way: The fact that torture, rape, and murder are shown in the photos and videos being released simply whizzes by them like it's nothing. Nope, the real issue is that releasing these images to the American public might give Muslims (who are supposedly on a 100% worldwide death rampage) a 'propaganda victory,' and that the ACLU, who fought for their release, is a subversive organization sneakily working toward a Muslim hegemony.
Try to parse that. The Worldwide Muslim Conspiracy is out to destroy us all, and if the Federal Government admits to what it's really doing to 'the Muslims,' it'll look bad to decent people, and also to an extra 100 + n percent of Muslims who aren't yet on a worldwide death rampage. Therefore, the Government should hide evidence of murder, rape, and torture (from us) in order to... And the ACLU should face legal penalties for... But on the other hand, this stuff is okay? It makes your eyeballs hurt thinking about it.
Chuckles the clown
Yipee! Charles 'Pulitzer's in the post' Johnson finally mentions the disaster in Iraq on his blog. He of course uses is as a dig against Michael Moore and a claim that recent violence is just a continuation of centuries old animosity between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Now I have absolutely no doubt that the historic tensions between these groups is playing its part, but is Charles suggesting that the US and British mismanagement, incompetence and presence in an occupied Iraq isn't playing a part in this? Of course he is. Anything to deflect the blame criticism from the Bush administration in Chuckles Johnsons world.
And what may you ask was the Michael Moore dig in aid of? Desperation probably. Charles' fantastic war of liberation, freedom and democracy is turning out to be a bit of a fantasy isn't it. Even respected military chiefs are calling it unwinnable. I'm sure Charles will have to resort to calling Cindy Sheehan names, desperately searching for positive stories in Iraq and blaming 'foreign' fighters to deflect any further attention to this disaster.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Intellectual Fraud: The Charles Johnson Way
Woohoo! Charles 'Laughing Boy' Johnson finally mentions the DeLay case. Of course he only mentions it in passing because the Daily Kos regulars are mocking his lack of coverage.
Normally I don’t send people into the raptors’ den, but check out Wednesday’s news stories at Little Green Footballs and tell me if something is missing. I wonder if they have palm trees in prison?To which Charles wittily reposts (or maybe not eh?)....
Of course, Iran took another step toward nuclear weapons yesterday and staged a riot at the British embassy in Tehran, Al Qaeda released a web video, and the International Freedom Center was shut down ... but the Kidz sure know what’s important!Is Charles suggesting that the DeLay isn't important? That the second highest ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives being indicted wasn't important? Was it a 'small' story Charles? Are you seriously trying to tell people that someone in DeLay's position being indicted is less important than a stage 'riot' in Tehran, Muslim extremists discovering webcasts and a memorial project being blocked? Is it less important than Melanie Phillips talking about seaborne Islamic pirates of the 17th century? Is it less important than an interview with Dan Rather? Is it less important than a meeting between Sen. John McCain and Cindy Sheehan? Is it less important than a cut and paste job of a Fouad Ajami op-ed? All these things appeared on your blog yesterday after the DeLay announcement.
Dhimmi Charles
A concerned LGF'er queries why he can't use the term 'Muzzie' and points out the irony of Charles using his software to change derogatory language and the kind of treatment he likes to dish out on other media sources for their 'overtly PC' language. Is Charles censoring his more extreme posters by denying them the freedom of using vile racial and religious name-calling?
107 wrathofg-d 9/28/2005 05:40PM PDTIt's a fair enough question. Bonus points for describing a 'thinking class' at LGF. There is definately little thinking and certainly no class there.
OK i just noticed that you can't write mu zz ie on LGF & that it becomes "muslim" instead.
However I also previewed the use of other derogatory terms for Jews, Blacks, Italians, Asians, etc., without problem...
NOPE... its only the derogatory terms for Arabs that get changed....
hey Charles...you going Dhimmi on us?
I don't mean to attack Charles or LGF at all as I love this site & most of the people on it... its just that... if the NYT, LAT, or MSM were to only protect their "readers" from offending muslims & not other groups we'd all be SCREAMING...DHIMMMI.
now I understand why we shouldn't use such terms to describe any group....but....I also notice a bit of irony that I thought the "thinking class" here on LGF might appreciate.
Slave to the whine
It seem Melanie Phillips has taught Charles something new. She's highlighted a period of history in which Muslims took British men, women and children and sold them into slavery from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Why this is of importance to the War on Terror is anyones guess, but with Charles any sort of story that shows Muslims behaving badly is fair game and aids his quest to provoke the more extreme of his comment section fascists.
The problem with this piece of news of course is not Charles shamelessley displaying his Islamophobia but the fact that in the same period of time in history the Christian British and other western nations were undertaking the same kind of barbaric operations and trading. At a far larger scale. But that doesn't count to people like Charles. The victims of that outrage weren't white.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Cracking down on crime, the Republican way
Remember kids, the Republicans aren't racist. It's everyone else that is over-sensitive. Take it away.....Bill Bennett.
“I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”Via Oliver Willis
Why the delay on DeLay?
I wonder why Charles hasn't mentioned this.
The second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was indicted on Wednesday on a felony campaign-finance charge and temporarily stepped down from his post.It could be that he doesn't want to post anything that could damage the image of the Republican party that he happily shills for. Or it could be that Steyn, Simon, Hitchens, Hanson or Horowitz haven't written anything about it that Charles can cut and paste yet.
The powerful Republican, nicknamed "The Hammer" for his reputation as a tough party enforcer, could face up to two years in prison if convicted on the charge handed up by the Travis County grand jury in the Texas state capital, Austin.
DeLay was indicted on a single conspiracy charge tied to illegal fund-raising activities by Texans for a Republican Majority, or TRMPAC, a political action committee he created, the Travis County District Attorney's office said.
Pensioner "Dived On" At Conference
Just think of what would've happened had he been a Brazilian electrician.
A pensioner who heckled the Foreign Secretary during a speech on Iraq was dragged out of the Labour Party conference.
Security guards reportedly "dived on" 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang after he called Jack Straw's speech "nonsense".
Sky News correspondent Jon Craig said heckling erupted when Mr Straw told the audience that British troops were in Iraq to "help the elected government to build a democratic and stable nation".
Feel the love, empathy and humanity
Disgusting comments just come thick and fast from LGF these days.
#10 Gringo 9/26/2005 05:39PM PDTHow is a comment like this any different from the anti-war crowd who 'allegedly' want us to lose?
I celebrate every time I hear of a reporter shot by a terrorist, or anyone else for that matter. But especially by a terrorist, the very people these POS strive so hard to support and encourage.
(ht SK)
No-win situation
Everybody's talking 'bout it. Seems even the military experts that were full of praise for the operation are now having serious doubts and questioning the Iraq War.
One of Britain's most experienced former Army chiefs has issued a stark warning over Iraq.
Retired General Sir Rupert Smith claims the battle against insurgents can never be won.
He says military tactics are out-dated and do not address the root causes of terrorism.
General Smith, who led troops in Northern Ireland and the Balkans, is releasing a book on the subject this week.
It challenges many assumptions of textbook military thinking.
Most radically, he warns that the fighting which flared up against British troops so dramatically in Basra last week reflects a war that cannot be won.
Anatomy of a Photograph 3: Zombie Apocalypse
Indie Politik takes Charles and Zombie of LGF to task over the claim that the San Francisco Chronicle deliberately misled its readers with a cropped photograph.
Anyhow, the post in question features a photograph from a San Francisco Chronicle story, which appeared on the newspaper’s website, featuring a young black woman wearing a bandanna over her mouth emblazoned with the words “People of Color say “No to War!”". The author of the post was at the same rally the photo was taken at and posts a few pictures of his own in attempt to reveal the Chronicle’s inherent liberal bias.
What the Chronicle’s picture does not disclose is that the group who the girl in the photograph represented was flying Palestinian flags and I can only suppose was protesting the Israel/Palestinian war during an Iraq war protest. They also had a *gasp* sign with profanity in it. The final few pictures, again taken by the author of the website, show the protesters being cheered on by a girl in a red shirt. The only problem, in the author’s opinion, is that this girl’s shirt also has a yellow star which obviously means she is a Communist. Gee, Communists at an anti-war protest? What’s this world coming to?
[...]
Now I might agree with this guy if the girl pictured did not attend the rally the article talked about or was taken out of context of a demonstration, but as far as I can tell:
The student pictured attended the anti-war protest
The student pictured was protesting war (at the anti-war protest)
The student was there on her own accord, not planted there by Communists
The picture is interesting to look at and depicts a protester at an anti-war protest
Misleading? I don’t think so.
Hitchens and the pond life
It seems Christopher Hitchens has a watch site. Good for him. Here's a snippet.
I could go on but it seems Chrissy has the little green Nazis eating out of his hand.We like this site.
Of course defenders of Christopher will say, well what choice does he have about who chooses to support him. I agree, but lets hope that the next time Chris decides to use David Duke to slander Cindy Sheehan he remembers some of the pond life who claim to be on his side.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
The Anatomy of a Photograph 2: The Revenge
Let's talk about the anatomy of a photograph. How about this one?
Good news for George W. Bush
It seems that Tony Blair is worse than him at convincing people of the success of the Iraq war.
Based on everything you know, do you think Tony Blair’s Iraq policies have been a success or a failure?
A success
22%
A failure
60%
Don’t know
18%
Based on what you have seen and heard do you think the presence of British forces in Iraq is... ?
Doing more harm than good
46%
Doing more good than harm
32%
Don’t know
22%
Source: ICM Research / Sunday Express
5 key towns taken by insurgents
The insurgency that's had its back 'broken' seems to be upping its campaign. Remember folks this isn't a quagmire. This isn't the new Vietnam.
A senior U.S. Marine commander said Monday that insurgents loyal to militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had taken over at least five key western Iraqi towns on the border with Syria and were forcing local residents to flee.
In an interview with The Chronicle, Lt. Col. Julian Alford, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment stationed outside the western Iraqi town of al Qaim, said insurgents in the area had been distributing flyers they called "death letters," in which they ordered residents of this western corner of volatile Anbar province to leave -- or face death.
"Basically, the insurgents say if they don't leave they will ... behead them," said Alford, who took command this month of about 1,000 Marines stationed in the dusty desert area populated by roughly 100,000 Sunni Arabs.
"It appears that al Qaeda in Iraq is kicking out local people from a lot of these towns out there," he said. Alford said he did not know why the insurgents were forcing townspeople to leave, but he estimated that as many as 100 families per day were passing through a Marine checkpoint just east of the troubled area, their cars packed with their belongings as they flee east alongside the Euphrates River on the ancient Silk Road.
Two weeks ago, Marine spokesmen denied initial reports that insurgents had taken control of the area and were enforcing strict Islamic law, whipping men accused of drinking alcohol, burning a beauty parlor and shops that sold CDs and executing government workers for collaboration with the Iraqi government.
Cindy Sheehan in her own words
Here are some snippets of Cindy Sheehan's account of being arrested.
The rumors are true this time. I was arrested in front of the White House today. It was my first time ever being arrested.Read it all here.
We proceeded from Lafayette Park to the Guard House at the White House.
I, my sister, and other Gold Star Families for Peace members and some Military Families requested to meet with the President again. We again wanted to know: What is the Noble Cause? Our request was, to our immense shock and surprise, denied. They wouldn't even deliver any letters or pictures of our killed loved ones to the White House.
We all know by now why George won't meet with parents of the soldiers he has killed who disagree with him. First of all, he hates it when people disagree with him. I am not so sure he hates it as much as he is in denial that it even happens. Secondly, he is a coward who arrogantly refuses to meet with the people who pay his salary. Maybe the next time one of us is asked by our bosses to have a performance review, or we are going to be written up for a workplace infraction, we should refuse to go and talk to our bosses citing the fact that the President doesn't have to. The third reason why he won't talk to us is that he knows there is no Noble Cause for the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq. It is a question that has no true answer.
[...]
Being arrested is not a big deal. Even though we were arrested for "demonstrating without a permit" we were protesting something that is much more serious than sitting on a sidewalk: the tragic and needless deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Americans (both in Iraq and here in America) who would be alive if it weren't for the criminals who reside in and work in the White House.
Karl Rove (besides just being a very creepy man) outed a CIA agent and was responsible for endangering many of our covert agents worldwide. Dick Cheney's old company is reaping profits beyond anyone's wildest imaginations in their no-bid contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and New Orleans. John Negroponte's activities in South America are very shady and murderous. Rumsfeld and Gonzales are responsible for illegal and immoral authorization, encouragement and approval of torture. Not to mention, violating Geneva Conventions, torture endangers the lives of our service men and women in Iraq. Along with the above mentioned traitors, Condi lied through her teeth in the insane run-up to the invasion. The list of crimes this administration has commited is extensive, abhorrent, and unbelievable. What is so unbelievable is that WE were arrested for exercising our first amendment rights and these people are running free to enjoy their lives of crime and to wreak havoc on the world.
In through the out door
Brownie's back. You really can't get get the staff can you George?
Brown told congressional investigators Monday that he is being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a senior official familiar with the meeting.
Malkin's Jews love war
I picked this up at Liberal Avenger. For some reason Michell Malkin (or her husband?) has titled the following photograph of a protester at the Washington anti-war protest as 'confused'.
Worse, not better
Juan Cole again makes some excellent points about Iraq and the need for withdrawal, and unlike Charles Johnson Proffessor Cole is an expert on the Middle East.
Things in the Sunni Arab areas are getting worse, not better.
I conclude that the presence of the US ground troops is making things worse, not better.
Let’s get them out, now, before they destroy any more cities, create any more hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, provoke any more ethnic hatreds by installing Shiite police in Fallujah or Kurdish troops in Turkmen Tal Afar. They are sowing a vast whirlwind, a desert sandstorm of Martian proportions, which future generations of Americans and Iraqis will reap.
The ground troops must come out. Now. For the good of Iraq. For the good of America.
A picture's worth a thousand lies
Think Progress pick up Charles 'Laughing Boy' Johnson on his ridiculous claims regarding the numbers of protesters in Washington DC over the weekend. Everyone's laughing at you Charles.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Like lizards to the slaughter
What you might have missed if you only read LGF:
Watchdog agrees Iran resolution
VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) -- The U.N. nuclear watchdog has passed a resolution requiring Iran to be reported to the Security Council over a failure to convince the agency its nuclear program was entirely peaceful.
"The resolution was adopted," an IAEA spokeswoman told reporters.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) governing board approved it despite Iranian threats to begin enriching uranium if the U.S.-backed resolution, drafted by the EU's three biggest powers, that could eventually lead to U.N. Security Council sanctions against Tehran was passed. ...
Meanwhile, Charles continues to bleat on and on about a peace march on the other side of America which he didn't attend but seems to know a hellovalot about. Baahhhh. Baaahhh. Baaaahhh.
You're laughing now, wait 'till the press covers it
The inmates are going crazy at the right-wing asylum better known as LGF. They are responding with their usual venom, dubious intellect and fascistic nastiness.
2 BIG 9/26/2005 10:59AM PDTI'm sure you get the idea. The thread will no doubt descend even further. How can these assholes be taken seriously by anyone anymore?
She'll probably enjoy the cavity search.
7 Atomic Redneck 9/26/2005 11:00AM PDT
Yay! I want to see some police brutality. Bring out the rubber hoses. If she wants to play martyr while spitting on everything her son gave his life for, let her pay the price.
31 lockednloaded 9/26/2005 11:06AM PDT
i guess her ex husband will not be coming by for the conjucal visits
32 Kevin Shook 9/26/2005 11:06AM PDT
I hope she goes on a hunger strike.
39 Jeff R 9/26/2005 11:07AM PDT
great, can they send her to gitmo?
Is he a part of a 'moronic convergence'?
Charles sees all anti-war protesters as communists, Islamists, Israel-haters, anarcho-socialist freaks, 9/11 conspiracy-mongers, CODEPINK, and International ANSWER. So where does the guy above fit in Charles? Or the tens of thousands of regular Americans who protest this war? How about the 60% of Americans who now disagree with the war?
The new wild west
Right-wing blogs can make as many lists of 'good news' from Iraq as they want. The truth of the matter is that stories of death, robbery, corruption, murder, civil war and torture come out of there on almost a weekly basis. This following story sounds like it should belong on a Hollywood back lot, not in 'liberated, democratic and free' Iraq.
ROBBERS shot dead two guards and made off with nearly £500,000 in cash after an attack on a convoy of armoured vehicles in Baghdad yesterday.
At least 24 other people were killed in separate violent incidents yesterday, with two suicide bombings and the first outbreak in a year of fighting between United States/Iraqi forces and fighters loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Seven people - two guards and five bystanders - were hurt in a gun battle with the robbers who attacked the convoy in the west of the capital.
Baghdad, which saw little street crime under the rule of Saddam Hussein, has become a haven for criminals. Kidnappings for ransom are common and authorities have said that some gangs sell hostages to the insurgents, particularly if they are non-Iraqis.
When the word 'moron' just isn't enough.....
Remember the LGF commentator called coulterclone? Well it was the one threw the word 'nigger' around when describing Mayor Nagin and continued to mispell the mans name as 'nagger' without a single 'minion' picking it up on it. Seems that wasn't enough. Here's a shining example of the kind of crap that will have potential Pajama Media advertisers running for the doors when it's highlighted to them.
117 coulterclone 9/22/2005 09:12AM PDTCan you believe it? Dubbing Cindy Sheehan as the bitch of Buchenwald. This goes beyond the usual childish name-calling that both the right and left indulge in. How can a grieving mother (who's politics you may or may not agree with) be compared to Ilse Koch (the Beast of Buchenwald)? How stupid and ignorant can a person be to make that statement? Stupid and ignorant enough to qualify as a regular on LGF I suppose.
Cindy SHeehan = Bitch of Buchenwald
The Real Pat Tillman
Independent thinker, Chomsky reader and opponent of the Iraq war. Is this really the man that the GOP and their blogging propagandists went hogwild over?
The Anatomy Of A Disgrace
The Real Oil for Food Scam
Were the villains of the piece the US and UK rather than the UN?
The U.S. has accused UN officials of corruption in Iraq’s oil for food program. According to Joy Gordon and Scott Ritter the charge was actually an attempt to disguise and cover up long term U.S. government complicity in this corruption. Ritter says, “this posturing is nothing more than a hypocritical charade, designed to shift attention away from the debacle of George Bush’s self-made quagmire in Iraq, and legitimize the invasion of Iraq by using Iraqi corruption and not the now-missing weapons of mass destruction, as the excuse.” Gordon arrives at the conclusion that, “perhaps it is unsurprising that today the only role its seems the United States expects the UN to play in the continuing drama of Iraq is that of scapegoat.”
According to Gordon the charges laid by the U.S. accounting office are bogus. There is plenty of evidence of corruption in the “oil-for-food” program, but the trail of evidence leads not to the UN but to the U.S. “The fifteen members of the Security Council—of which the United States was by far the most influential—determined how income from oil proceeds would be handled, and what the funds could be used for.” Contrary to popular understanding, the Security Council is not the same thing as the UN. It is part of it, but operates largely independently of the larger body. The UN’s personnel “simply executed the program that was designed by the members of the Security Council.”
The claim in the corporate media was that the UN allowed Saddam Hussein to steal billions of dollars from oil sales. If we look, as Gordon does, at who actually had control over the oil and who’s hands held the money, a very different picture emerges. “If Hussain did indeed smuggle $6 billion worth of oil in the ‘the richest rip off in world history,’ he didn’t do it with the complicity of the UN. He did it on the watch of the U.S. Navy.” explains Gordon.
Every monetary transaction was approved by the U.S. through its dominant role on the Security Council. Ritter explains, “the Americans were able to authorize a $1 billion exemption concerning the export of Iraqi oil for Jordan, as well as legitimize the billion-dollar illegal oil smuggling trade over the Turkish border.” In another instance, a Russian oil company “bought oil from Iraq under ‘oil for food’ at a heavy discount, and then sold it at full market value to primarily U.S. companies, splitting the difference evenly between [the Russian company] and the Iraqis. This U.S. sponsored deal resulted in profits of hundreds of millions of dollars for both the Russians and the Iraqis, outside the control of ‘oil for food.’ It has been estimated that 80 percent of the oil illegally smuggled out of Iraq under ‘oil for food’ ended up in the United States.”
Not only were criminals enriched in this nefarious scheme, it also ended up sabotaging the original purpose of “oil for food.” Gordon explains, “How Iraq sold its oil was also under scrutiny, and the United States did act on what it perceived to be skimming by Hussain in these deals. The solution that it enacted, however, succeeded in almost bankrupting the entire Oil for Food Program within months.”
Harebrained Security Council policy not only succeeded in enriching the dishonest, it also virtually destroyed the program. According to Gordon, the U.S. and UK attempted to prevent kickbacks resulting from artificially low prices: “Instead of approving prices at the beginning of each sales period (usually a month), in accordance with normal commercial practices, the two allies would simply withhold their approval [of the price] until after the oil was sold—creating a bizarre scenario in which buyers had to sign contracts without knowing what the price would be.” The result was “oil sales collapsed by forty percent, and along with them the funds for critical humanitarian imports.”
What we have here, according to Gordon and Ritter, is a bare-faced attempt by criminals to shift blame to the innocent. Gordon concludes, “Little of the blame can credibly be laid at the feet of ‘the UN bureaucracy.’ Far more of the fault lies with policies and decisions of the Security Council in which the United States played a central role.”
Freedom?
A quote from one of the 100 strong pro-war 'protestors'
“No matter what your ideals are, our sons and daughters are fighting for our freedom,” said Marilyn Faatz, who drove from New Jersey to attend the rally. “We are making a mockery out of this. And we need to stand united, but we are not.”Really? Who's freedom are the troops fighting for? Were American freedoms at risk by the thousands of dead Iraqis? I thought the war was based on the claims of WMD's? Links to 9/11? Saddam's brutal regime (who the US supported during its most bloody period)? Why should the average American stand united for a war that was based on lies? Surely freedom allows people the right to protest war? To protest the illegal and destructive policies of its government? Who is damaging freedom more? The protesters or the government?
What do you call a rally if no-one shows up?
A PR disaster. Charles 'laughing boy' Johnson may well be trying to fool his moronic 'minions' into believing there were less than 100,000 people at the recent anti-war demonstration (despite official Police numbers contradicting him) but one of his sources were the 'counter' protesters. This group of 'activists' had planned their own rally as a counter to the much maligned (by Charles anyway) anti-war protests. They were expecting 20,000 people to turn up to support the pro-war, pro-Bush, let's-not-undermine-Halliburton cause. Unfortunately for them and for our favourite Bush propagandist only 100 people turned up. Wow, with figures like that, Cindy Sheehan must be shaking in her boots.
About 100 people had gathered before a stage set up on the eastern portion of the mall as the noon rally began. A large photo of an American flag served as a backdrop for the stage, and country music blared from speakers while other banners and signs proclaiming support for U.S. troops waved in the breeze.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
'The situation is much worse now'
Film-maker Ali Fadhil writes about his return to Iraq, and he has some strong views on the pullout issue:
I can't agree with Simon Jenkins, who wrote in yesterday's Guardian that it is now time for British troops to be pulled out of Iraq. You cannot go immediately because the country will collapse - and it is you, after all, who brought the chaos. You destroyed Saddam, but you also destroyed a system that had worked for 50 years. You didn't just take Saddam, you took the whole order: the police force, the way the police worked, the way security was kept and managed.
Withdrawal right now will mean the complete collapse of our society; if the British and US forces stay, the collapse will just be more gradual. I don't want to be too pessimistic - I've thought about this for a long time - but I can't see the answer. I've been all over Iraq in the past year, and been asked by many, many people what the best solution is. I don't know.
What I do know is that the violence will increase before the constitution is voted on in December, and ultimately I believe my country will divide: the Shias in the south turning towards Iran; the Kurds turning to themselves in their northern homeland, and in the middle - my broken country.
"Qibla Cola is a bit flat"
A parable for our time: 'The rise and fall of Qibla Cola' (scroll down to the last item)
Dishonest or Stupid? You decide.
Charles Johnson, the man who couldn't find the time to mention a series of suicide bombings in Iraq the other week which killed over 120 people, spends an awful law of time constructing an artificial world in which he and his lizards can feel superior to their particular version of the untermensch, the 'LLL moonbat'.
His latest effort, as already documented below, consists of downplaying the number of people who attended Saturday's Stop The War March in DC. In a flimsy attempt to prove his previous assertion that only a handful of people turned up to support 'Mama Moonbat's' crusade against America, he presents us with the following picture of an almost empty field:
The problem is, the police (who tend to play down attendance figures) put the number of people attending the march at 150,000. Indeed, there is photographic evidence to support this claim:
Now ask yourself: Is Charles a) too stupid to do a simple Flickr, Indymedia, or Google News search for pictures of the DC protest which accurately reflect the number of people there, or b) too dishonest to present his readers with the facts?
Shooting innocents and arresting heros...
...is not the way to win the war on terror: 'Woman arrested over Menezes leak'
How many Charles?
Charles is happily reporting on the size of the crowds in DC. Post after post questioning the numbers. Eye-witness reports from the 'counter protest' and cherry picked photos of empty fields etc etc. So who's telling the truth? How many turned up?
Protest organizers estimated a crowd of about 200,000 rallied at the Ellipse, then marched around the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue. Police downgraded the count to about 150,000. The crowd thinned when a misty drizzle began before the afternoon concert on the Washington Monument grounds.Charles claims there were far less than 100,000 with no evidence, the protesters claim 200,000 (well they would) and the police claim 150,000. Are the police liars Charles?
Saturday, September 24, 2005
So much for right-wing paranoia
PITTSBURGH -- A federal jury awarded an Egyptian-born radiologist nearly $2.5 million for invasion of privacy after a property manager searched his apartment and called police on Sept. 11, 2001.
After four days of deliberations, the jury issued the award Thursday to Basem M.F. Hussein, saying the invasion of his privacy was made with "malice of reckless indifference" to his rights.
Sherri Lynn Wilson had entered Hussein's apartment in Coraopolis the day of the attacks to replace furnace filters, according to testimony. She told the FBI she saw Arabic literature, an airplane flight manual, a compact disc jacket that showed an exploding airplane, and chemical residue she believed to be from bomb-making activities.
What she actually saw was a popular flight simulator computer game and its CD jacket, which did not depict an exploding airplane, Hussein's attorney said. The purported Arabic literature was an English version of the Koran; the chemical residue was household dust.
From the WP.
The 'myth' of the foreign fighters
The US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq "feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the incurgency flames, they only comprise only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Black hearted brain disorder
These posts demonstrate the absolutely ridiculous thought that LGF is a 'big hearted brain trust'.
#30 SwampWoman 9/22/2005 09:47PM PDT
And I get the feeling that she's absolutely delighted that her son died so that she could run about with her moonbat friends saying exactly the same things as before her son died, but now claiming some kind of moral authority from HIS sacrifice.
61 gus3 9/22/2005 10:04PM PDT
#30 SwampWoman:
For someone who's supposed to be mournful, the Lead Moonbat has done an awful lot of grinning.
67 SwampWoman 9/22/2005 10:12PM PDT
She's happy as a pig in, er, mud. Her son getting killed has elevated her moronic and simplistic ideas to something to be revered by the MSM.
72 Stuck in California 9/22/2005 10:23PM PDT
Mr. Sheehan (her son) must be very proud of mommy dearest...much like her (ex) husband.
102 krisper 9/22/2005 11:04PM PDTSo it starts off with the usual insults and moronic chatter and ends up claiming that the next terrorist attack on the USA will be committed by peace protesters.
I'd lay even money on the next terrorist attack in the U.S. being as likely to come from one of Sheehan's crazed supporters as from Muslim wingnuts.
George Says Relax
All his bluster about morality, noble causes and freedom mean nothing when he choses to look the other way on this issue.
President Bush decided Wednesday to waive any financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia, Washington’s closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism, for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.What possible reason would George W. Bush have for ignoring this?
The wisdom of Boris
Here's a fantastic piece by Tory MP Boris Johnson. I wonder if Charles will dub him a dhimmi, commie, moonbat or whatever?
What a shambles. What chaos. And how quickly it all seems to be getting worse. Looking at those pictures of a Basra jail, pulverised by the British Army, it seems hard to believe that it was only six months ago that the very same British Army took me to see a jail in the very same city.
I was there with a couple of Labour MPs, and a leading Welsh Nat, and we inspected the premises in our best Duke-of-Edinburgh way, smiles stitched tightly on, hands behind backs, and we all agreed that it was really rather impressive. I am not suggesting that a Basra jail is exactly a Mark Warner holiday - I remember the terrible fug and the black hole full of 34 juvenile offenders, some of them in for rape and murder, and the way they clutched at my legs and begged for "forgiveness".
I remember the poor illiterate Iranian women and their children, the terrible sanitation, the gap-toothed grins on the faces of the men who crowded round the bars as we passed.
But on the whole, we MPs were agreed that much good was being done here, and being done by the British. The governor sat on his plastic brown armchair and gave a long speech of thanks to HMG, and I noted that we were instructing the Iraqis in some precious ideas: the concept of habeas corpus, the notion that a suspect was entitled to a lawyer, the complete inadmissibility of torture or beating - that kind of thing. Then we were bundled back into our flak jackets and into the armoured convoy, and I came away with the impression - whether brainwashed or not - that Britain and the fledgling Iraqi government were working together, with the utmost dedication, to rebuild public confidence in a humane and durable criminal justice system.
And now, on Monday, I learn the reality of the relations between the British forces and the Iraqi police.
Read it all.
Really stuck on stupid
Sack your speech writer George, people are noticing.
Even the words are the same. On Iraq, President Bush declared on Feb. 4, 2004, "We will do what it takes. We will not leave until the job is done." On post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, on Sept. 15, he eerily echoed, "We will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes." It was reassuring for the nation to be told by the president in his televised address that he intends to "stay" in the United States and not cut and run. Perhaps a White House speechwriter hit the copy-and-paste function on his computer or the word "stay" simply popped into the president's mind as he contemplated the crisis, straying into improvisation.Thanks for the re-run.
Waiting for the storm
Is Rita going to prove as destructive as Katrina? God only knows. However, it seems that the evacuation simply isn't working. Cars are bumper to bumper, lanes on the highway are being kept closed and not being used as contra-flow, the sick, elderly and children are sitting in extremely hot vehicles, some people are turning back and going home rather than be caught on the highway.......and the poor are still immobile.
The storm's march toward land sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the nation's fourth-largest city in a frustratingly slow, bumper-to-bumper exodus.AmericaBlog hits the nail on the head with this paragraph.
"This is the worst planning I've ever seen," said Judie Anderson, who covered just 45 miles in 12 hours after setting out from her home in the Houston suburb of LaPorte. "They say we've learned a lot from Hurricane Katrina. Well, you couldn't prove it by me."
Bush is right: Osama is watching and laughing.
Four years and billions of dollars of planning, and guess what? We can't evacuate a single city worth a damn. This isn't just about mayors and governors. This is no longer just about New Orleans. It seems that our emergency plans just don't work, at least as it concerns mass evacuations.
What chance a little mention?
What chance is there that Charles will report this little piece of news?
The government is expected to propose a legal amendment Sunday that would allow Israeli Arabs wounded in Jewish terror attacks, and the families of those killed in such attacks, to receive government compensation.Considering Charles focused on the fact that an Arab (not Palestinian by the way, they were Druze) crowd beat a Jewish 'terrorist' (a word Charles finds hard to use in that context, although Ariel Sharon seems to have no problem using) to death instead of mentioning the murder four innocent civilians. He also ignored the following attack by a Jewish extremist. What chance is there of Charles mentioning this story?
If the state makes the proposal and the Knesset passes it, Israeli Arabs will be considered "victims of hostile acts" and will receive compensation equal to that received by Jewish victims of Arab terror attacks.
The move comes after the terror attack in the Israeli Arab town of Shfaram in early August, in which an Israel Defense Forces soldier who had defected from the army opened fire on Arab citizens, killing four.
As the law stands now, the state compensates only those citizens who are victims of militant or terror activity carried out by an army, organization or individuals hostile to the State of Israel.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said after the Shfaram attack that there is a need to amend the law so as to recognize those murdered by Jewish terrorists as people killed in hostile acts.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy! Ethnic Cleansing!
More worrying news from the impending civil war in Iraq. Mass ethnic cleansing is being undertaken by armed groups in areas of Baghdad.
The ethnic cleansing of Baghdad neighborhoods is proceeding at an alarming and potentially destabilizing pace.
Some Shiite Muslim residents in predominantly Sunni Muslim Baghdad neighborhoods are fleeing their homes because they say the country's violence and sectarian tensions have reached their front doors, forcing them to move into more homogenous communities.
Government officials and academic experts agree that the virtual expulsion of some ethnic groups from mixed communities is troubling and threatens the nation's stability, which depends on a degree of ethnic harmony. Some worry the purges are setting the early stages of civil war, saying that homogenous neighborhoods could become future battlegrounds in the capital.
Indeed, some government officials concede that insurgents, mainly Sunnis, are controlling parts of Baghdad.
"Civil war today is closer than any time before," said Hazim Abdel Hamid al Nuaimi, a professor of politics at al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. "All of these explosions, the efforts by police and purging of neighborhoods is a battle to control Baghdad."
Quote of the week
Here's a classic from Bette Midler
"I got a letter from the Republican Party the other day. I wrote back, 'Go fuck yourself.'"She then added,
"George Bush is a fan of mine -- he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him."
Pointing the finger at racism
According to Charles 'Laughing Boy' Johnson vile white supremacists and neo-nazis have 'fastened on the Hurricane Katrina disaster to promote their own vile mental illness'. I'm happy that Charles has found time to recognize other 'targets' on his weblog that aren't radical Islamic clerics, liberal websites or grieving mothers. But perhaps if he wants to see the real problem, the racism of the subtle and sometimes not so subtle general populace, then a good place to start is here.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
The Lost Age of American Journalism
For more information on this film (which looks superb), please visit here.
Quote, mis-quote
Charles 'Pulitzer's in the post' Johnson is at it again. He claims,
Cat Stevens: London Bombings Are the Result of Foreign PolicyCat Stevens actually said,
Yusuf Islam, who had a string of pop hits in the 1960s and ‘70s, said an al-Qaida video claiming responsibility for the attacks and linking them to Britain’s role in the Middle East showed foreign policy “was not the only factor but it was a major contributory.”See the difference? Only an idiot would claim that British foreign policy would lead solely to the bombings in much the same way as a similar idiot would claim that British foreign policy played no factor in the bombings.
There is another America
Now I'm no fan of the expensive cigar smoking, limousine hiring, Saddamite George Galloway but even the most repulsive of spivs makes a good point about the Bush administration and Hurricane Katrina.
"The scenes from the stricken city almost defy belief. Many, many thousands of people left to die in what is the richest, most powerful country on Earth. This obscenity is as far from a natural disaster as George Bush and the U.S. elite are from the suffering masses of New Orleans. The images of Bush luxuriating at his ranch and of his secretary of state shopping for $7,000 shoes while disaster swamped the U.S. Gulf Coast will haunt this administration.
"In the most terrible way imaginable they show to the whole world that it is not only the lives of people in Baghdad, Fallujah and Palestine that Bush holds cheap. It is also his own citizens - the black and poor people left behind with no food, water or shelter. This is not simply manslaughter through incompetence, though the White House's incompetence abounds. It is murder - for Bush was warned four years ago of the threat to New Orleans, as surely as he was warned of the disaster that would come of his war on Iraq.
"His is the America of Halliburton, the M-16 rifle, the cluster bomb, the gated communities of the rich and of the billionaires he grew up with in Texas. There is another America. It is the land of the poor of Louisiana, it is the land of the young men and women economically conscripted into the military. It is the land of the glorious multiethnic mix that was New Orleans, it is the land of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and of great struggles for justice."
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Idiots colloquium
Over at the LGF fanclub site, the natives chose to co-opt Thomas Paine's Common Sense (a pamphlet that put the case for independance) to justify the nightmarish disasters taking place in Iraq. They use this line by Paine.
The Harder the Conflict, The More Glorious the Triumph....Like Vietnam?
The Vietnam conflict continues to be the touchstone for both the military and policy makers committed to avoiding future foreign military "quagmires." As the United States made the seemingly inexorable transition from being advisors to undertaking covert operations, bombing and deploying ground troops, the strategy of "incremental escalation" emerged as the military's bĆŖte noire. Military frustrations during the "war without fronts" were heightened by diplomatic and humanitarian constraints on operations in North Vietnam. Protest and resistance at home and abroad underlined the pitfalls of pursuing prolonged, costly and divisive wars alone. And the ultimate defeat of South Vietnam in 1975 strengthened the resolve of those who would avoid "unwinnable" limited wars in the future.Key word: "Unwinnable"
UPDATE: It seems they have no problem linking to and agreeing with Steve Sailer, a notorious 'scientific' racist and a homophobe. Nice company to keep.
Sailer's racist views and true colors became more prevalent after writing articles for VDare. Whether declaring that Latinos are no-good trash and Latino immigration must end, or that Blacks are genetically inferior in mental capability and do not deserve equal educational and economic opportunities, or that Asians are genetically inferior in physique and do not deserve opportunities in professional sports, Sailer has used VDare as his flagship to carry out his racist agenda of white supremacy and to trash on anyone who is not white like him.
[...]
Before you get offended with any of his writings, please keep in mind he is only a biased freelance writer. He is not a scientist or doctor from an accredited institution in the field of genetics or race. His livelihood depends on overexaggerating, even flat out lying, to create a stir among the public so he can profit and pay off his personal bills. Unfortunately, his countless writings on the internet has created much lies and
discontent, and it is time to hold him accountable.
Sickening senselessness
It seems US red tape looks like it will condemn donated British food to the incinerator. What a waste, especially conisidering the desperate situatuon the hurrican evacuees find themselves in.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".
The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.
Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.
The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.
But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.
The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.
Counting bodybags
Last throes. That's how Dick Cheney described the insurgency. Or how about Condoleeza Rice saying that it was losing steam? Does this sound like winning?
Using enemy body counts as a benchmark, the U.S. military claimed gains against Abu Musab Zarqawi's foreign-led fighters last week even as they mounted their deadliest attacks on Iraq's capital.
But by many standards, including increasingly high death tolls in insurgent strikes, Zarqawi's group, al Qaeda in Iraq, could claim to be the side that's gaining after 2 1/2 years of war. August was the third-deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.
Hold the front page!
Charles 'Pulitzer's in the post' Johnson strikes another blow against the big boys of the mainstream media. After the fantastic Al-Qaeda using birds as surface to air missiles exclusive is this fantastic piece of journalism.
Muslim Council of Britain concerned about Muslim community shocker!!How did Reuters miss that one?
Monday, September 19, 2005
Oil for food?
This makes the despicable corruption at the UN look like chump change. I wonder when the right wing of the blogosphere is going to start complaining about the waste and corruption in the new Iraq?
What Happened to Flight 17?
Nothing. So much for an 'exclusive'. So much for that red hot tip.
The sighting was reported near Colt's Neck, NJ, which is a major route south out of NY. FAA set up a small temporary flight restriction around the area while checking radar files. Turned out to be nothing more than birds, and [a] big game of "telephone."The MSM must be really bricking it.
I'm the draft Iraqi constitution and so's my wife
Baghdad Burning (riverbendblog) takes on the Iraqi constitution head on.
I’ve been reading and re-reading the Iraqi draft constitution since the beginning of September. I decided to ignore the nagging voice in my head that kept repeating, “A new constitution cannot be legitimate under an occupation!” and also the one that was saying, “It isn’t legitimate because the government writing it up isn’t legitimate.” I put those thoughts away and decided to try to view the whole situation as dispassionately as possible.
It was during the online search for the *real* draft constitution that the first problem with the document hit me. There are, as far as I can tell, three different versions. There are two different Arabic versions and the draft constitution translated to English in the New York Times a few weeks ago differs from them both. I wish I could understand the Kurdish version- I wonder if that is different too. The differences aren’t huge- some missing clauses or articles. Then again, this is a constitution- not a blog… one would think precision is a must.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Loverboy
Charles has been mentioned on Jesus' General in a strange post. The best part is this comment.
I refuse to consider the question "who's hotter, Chris Hitchens or Charles Johnson" before breakfast.
No, I refuse to consider that question at any time. Some mental images are not only painful and unpleasant, they are just wrong.
Besides, isn't Hitchens drunk almost all the time now? I'd be surprised if he could even -- oops, I almost let a really ugly image form.
A haven for the stupid and the hateful
It seems that a considerable amount of LGF'ers have started their own blog. It begs the question, wasn't LGF's comments section moronic enough for them? Well with nuggets like this, obviously not.
Some people think American, is a race. They say Americans are white, but, black Americans are also in the race of Americans. This thing we call America appears to be much more than a piece of land. Apparently, it also changes the genetic structure of all humans as soon as they are born in America, or take up citizenship here. Thats right, signing off on your citizenship actually changes your genetic structure !!You really have to ask yourself how these people manage to get up and go to work in the morning don't you.
So, here is a safe bit of advice. Dont talk bad about Americans, any of them, because if you do, youre a racist.
[....]
"Paleoswinian" is not a race. It is an unfortunate set of circumstances. Paleoswinian means Jordyptian, another non race. I dont like Palestinians, that means Im racist.
UPDATE:
It seems the author of the above post has his own blog as well. Let's see there's guns, pick-ups, trucker caps.........
UPDATE 2:
Seems LGC is complaining about being spammed. Don't worry guys/gals, you have an expert in Pablo. Ask him.
Stupefaction
This is just great.
The entire world has been following with stupefaction the incredible performance of the U.S. federal government's response to the physical and human disaster of the hurricane Katrina. All the television networks of the U.S. and of many other countries plus all the major newspapers have been following the story in detail. The general reaction has been to ask how could the government of the richest and most powerful country in the world have reacted to this disaster as poorly as, or even much less well than, governments of poor Third World countries? The simple answer is a combination of incompetence and decline. And the results of this disaster will be a further diminution of respect for the president within the United States and a deepened skepticism in other countries about the United States' capacity to put action behind vacuous rhetoric.Read it all.
The initial reaction of George W. Bush to Katrina was to say, how could anyone have predicted that the levees would be breached and 80% of the city of New Orleans flooded? As a matter of fact, the Houston Chronicle predicted it in 2001. The New Orleans Times-Picayune predicted it in 2002. And the National Geographic, one of America's most widely-read magazines (and one totally apolitical), predicted it in 2004. As a matter of fact as well, such a catastrophe was listed in documents of the government published during Bush's own presidency as one of three potential major catastrophes that were quite possible. In addition, anyone listening to the television two days before Katrina struck heard the mayor of New Orleans warn the citizens of New Orleans (and the world) that this time, this was a really serious storm, and he ordered mandatory evacuation of the city. As everyone knows now very well, only 80% of the residents had the car and the money with which to evacuate. Did the U.S. government think urgently to send in buses before the storm hit and the levees broke, in order to evacuate the other 20 percent? Of course not.
Spreading panic and terror paranoia
If you had a story that was completely unverified (from a reader of your blog) that was still under investigation and would spread panic and fear, would you publish? Charles would.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
The Death of a Salesman
All respect and integrity can be negotiated. PJ Media relies on the 'alleged' left wing.
Cherry Pickin'
Never, ever defend LGF by saying people cherry pick your racist and moronic posts: Part OneIf you're willing to do the same with others.
Common sense and tax cuts
Common sense, natural leadership and an intellect that rates well above chimplike. A man who advocates ending tax cuts and pledging a commitment to rebuilding America and equipping its troops. Someone should make this man President.
Ooops. They did once.
Crying 'Thought Crime'
Of course Charles and his fellow travellers would scream blue murder when a US student newspaper columnist got fired for writing a piece praising racial profiling (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17527), for Jillian Bandes followed the same modus operandi these right-wing wannabe pundits have made their very own: No, we're not talking about the practice of saying 'controversial things nobody dares to say but everybody thinks'. Charles & Co are not generally fans of controversial pronouncements. What they do like, though, is being able to take quotes out of context, distort what people say, and generally twist existing facts into any shape or form, as long as they fit what these cretins have to say.
Having a finger pointed at their journalistic incompetence is like bright light to a vampire for the Lizards. Keep shining out their dirty dark secrets and they'll eventually crumble.
Glorifying terrorism
Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber makes an interesting point about the proposed law in Britain outlawing 'glorifying terrorism'. Who decides which historical events it is or isn’t acceptable to “glorify”. He lists these following events and asks will the 'praise' of them be illegal.
The Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel (1946)This is a minefield. These acts were terrorist acts but depending on your political outlook some can be explained. For instance, Charles of LGF would probably not consider the assasination of Palestinians by Mossad in foreign countries an act of terrorism. Does this mean Charles should cross Britain off his holiday destination list in fear of breaking UK law?
Any bombings or shootings by the Baader-Meinhof gang.
ETA’s assassination of Prime Minister Carrero Blanco in 1973
Any acts of Palestinian terrorism.
The assassination by Mossad of Palestinian leaders in foreign countries.
The assassination of any member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by the French secret service in 1985.
She's like Ann Coulter without the penis
Jesus' General outdoes himself. I laughed so hard it hurt. Obviously Charles was outraged about whole incident.
Newsmax invents Kathleen Blanco story
How long before this surfaces on the right wing of the blogosphere?
Friday, September 16, 2005
The St. Patrick's Four
First amendment? Pah, what does that matter to the Feds.
NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Four peace activists face up to eight years in federal prison and $275,000 fines each for their non-violent protest of the Iraq war if convicted of the federal charges filed against them in U.S. District Court. The trial, which begins Sept. 19 in Binghamton, N.Y., is the first time the Federal government has pressed conspiracy charges against civilian Iraq war protesters.Who are the St. Patrick's four? Islamists? Terror enablers? Traitors? Anarchists. They're four members of the Catholic Workers Movement who protested by praying at a military recruitment station and carefully poured a small amount of their own blood on poster and the US flag to symbolize the violence of war and the sanctity of life.
"Federal intervention in this case represents a blatant act of government intimidation and will have a chilling effect on expression of the first amendment rights of any citizen to protest or speak out against their government," said Bill Quigley, acclaimed public interest lawyer and law professor at Loyola University School of Law, who is acting as legal advisor to the defendants.
The St. Patrick's Four have been charged with "conspiracy to impede an officer of the United States by threat, intimidation and force" and other lesser charges for their actions at their local military recruiting station on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2003, two days before the US military invasion of Iraq began.
A previous trial in county court on charges of criminal mischief and trespassing resulted in a hung jury, with nine of twelve members favoring acquittal.
For more info visit stpatricksfour.org
Undeniable
Marie Woolf states the blatantly obvious in today's Independent
The Iraq war is "undeniably a factor" in motivating extremist Muslims in Britain, an internal document drawn up by a government working group and leaked to The Independent concluded.No shit Sherlock.
The confidential report, entitled Working Together to Prevent Extremism: Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation and drawn up after meetings between leading Muslims and government officials, says: "British foreign policy in the world cannot be left unconsidered as a factor in the motivations of extremists."
Handbags at dawn
Someone is certainly off Charles Johnsons Xmas card list
Also, I'm starting Boxers Media, a new ad agency designed to take the money and run while pretending to promote your blog. Hurry and sign up, sycophants! Mostly we'll link to Instapundit. "Boxers Media" is a bit of a lie since I'm usually naked, but you know these advertisers. Bluenoses, the lot of them. Must keep up appearances, or I can't make money off these brownnosers. That's why you guys need to start Discarded Lies Colloquium, because this comments section embarrasses me with my advertisers and I'm closing comments soon.
Nobody wins the 'grapple in the apple'
The much advertised 'Hitchens vs. Galloway' debate was a rather depressing bore draw. I forced myself to listen to these two old warhorses having a pop at each other and came away feeling dirty and used. It basically boiled down to one former Trot arguing with a fascistic Stalinist. Big wow. The Americans seemed interested though. I think I was right with my Chuckle Brothers comparison.
O'Reilly recognizes the horrors of war
It seems on the day 160 Iraqis were slaughtered in Iraqs deadliest day since the US and coalition invasion that Bill O'Reilly has come to his senses. Listen to the empathy and horror in his voice here.
O’Reilly: The truth of the matter is our correspondents at Fox News can’t go out for a cup of coffee in Baghdad.What kind of fucked up hell hole is Iraq? I mean, Fox News correspondents can't even get a cup of coffee! They probably even had to wait to get breakfast yesterday. Can't anyone think of the journalists?
Rice: Bill, that’s tough. It’s tough. But what — would they have wanted to have gone out for a cup of coffee when Saddam Hussein was in power?
So much for this insurgency being in the 'last throes', eh? So much for intelligent discussion on the war on Bill O'Reilly's show.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
No Sense Expected from LGF
Charles has really surpassed himself today. He notes that,
Humiliating checkpoints have appeared once again in Gaza, oppressing peaceful Palestinians simply trying to go about their business.So how is being stopped at a checkpoint humiliating when done by your fellow countrymen who are tasked with securing and maintaining order? How is it oppressive? It is however oppressive for an occupying force to do that, while it allows settlers from it's nation to come and go unhindered in the occupied territory.
Palestinian Gunmen Set Up Gaza Checkpoints.
Next Time, Let's Have a "Reality Walk".
Here's a fantastic piece from Mykeru.
The walk wasn't underway for no more than a handful of minutes, as the group I was walking with skirted the highway side of the Pentagon, when self appointed defenders of freedom picked out one middle-aged, blonde-haired woman who was wearing a nonoffensive, yet distinctly anti-war T-shirt. You can pretty much just make up the dialogue in your head: People telling her that her presence was "inappropriate", that she was in the wrong place and that folks don't like that sort of thing in a "red state" like Virginia (which, incidentally is strongly pro-choice statewide and was just as strongly for Kerry in Arlington during the last election). I reminded one particularly snotty young woman with her kids in tow that the event was supposedly commemorating the September 11 attacks, but the woman, drunk on kool-aid, couldn't differentiate between that 9/11 and the necessity for sending troops into Iraq.Please take time to read it all here.
The woman in the anti-war t-shirt said "Sorry, I'm from Massachusetts", which was followed by some pinheaded wingnutty guy who sneered, "Yeah, we're sorry you're from Massachusetts too" and then added "That's where Barney Frank is from", letting the name of an openly gay Congressman hang in the air like an accusation.
"Welcome to the Red States", he said.
I'm still kicking myself for not getting it on video. But my discreet attempt at pressing the shutter button on my camera didn't start the video recording.
Turns out the woman, named Mimi, was a friend of Cindy Sheehan, had a son in Fallujah, and friends who died on 9/11. She had much more right to be there than the people whose contribution to defending our freedoms consists of putting on a T-shirt and fake dog tags and walking to a concert.
A country music concert, T-shirt and fake dog tags. The victims of 9/11 and their families thank you.
Using soldiers as bait
I was a captain with the 2nd Battalion 4th Field Artillery during the invasion of Iraq. My active duty commitment to the military ended in May 2004. In January 2003, I requested a transfer to this battalion to fill an officer vacancy because it was the first battalion from Fort Sill to mobilize during the pre-invasion build up. I, like the rest of us, still felt the deep emotions that followed 9/11. I was told of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and links to al-Qaeda. I wanted to do my part to protect America.
From March 20 to May 12, 2003, the 4th Field Artillery moved from Kuwait, through the Karbala gap, into Baghdad before the city capitulated, to Tikrit, and finally back to Kuwait. Along the way, I saw firsthand what death and destruction look like. I learned what it feels like to realize that your life may end in a few minutes, but my personal experiences back then pale in comparison to the violence that is currently happening in Iraq every single day.
This is not why I oppose the war. I would do it again if my actions were protecting American citizens, but this is not what we are doing in Iraq.
[....]
Fighting them over there is immoral for two reasons. First, it means that we're fighting our war in someone else's home and they get to suffer for it. Second, it means that we're using our soldiers as bait.
This is not what I call supporting our troops. The military is not a sports team, and war is not a football game. It's very real. As a nation, we have to ask ourselves if what we're doing is right. Are we having a positive impact in Iraq? Is our presence there protecting American citizens? The answers are overwhelmingly no, and this is why I cannot support the war.
Not a peep...
Reader SK comments:
While they [LGF] are obsessing about the Flight 93 memorial no mention of the horror in Baghdad yesterday, 160 killed, or the impending civil war. What a bunch of dishonest assholes they are. No mention because it makes their Bushie look bad.
Fuckers
A Sad Thing That Happened
Christopher Hayes has great piece about the 'Freedom Walk' organised by the Pentagon last Sunday.
When the Pentagon announced it would be staging a march on September 11, 2005, to commemorate the victims of 9/11 and show support for the troops, it was hard not to expect the worst: Triumph of the Will on the Potomac.Read it all here.
But after three of the dullest hours of my life, I’m happy to report those fears proved unfounded. ...
Which is not to say that things didn’t run smoothly. After several weeks on the defensive for its response to hurricane Katrina, it was refreshing to see the administration back on top of its game. At the Freedom Walk there was no confusion or chaos, no lines that led to nowhere or promises of buses that never came. Marchers arriving in the Pentagon Metro station were met by an army of volunteers in blue shirts, helpfully dispensing information and pointing which direction to go. There were police out in great numbers, and paramedics in bright red shirts on shiny new bikes, in case anyone needed medical assistance. With the sun blaring and the temperature flirting with 90, dehydration was a possibility, but before the march started and again at the one-mile mark, a dozen volunteers standing besides pallets of water eagerly dispersed bottles to the crowd. ...
Perhaps most striking about the march was that it awkwardly called attention to the diminishing returns of 9/11, the original fount of the White House’s political capital. What was once The Day That Changed Everything has become so sentimentalized that it is now, simply, A Sad Thing That Happened. When Rumsfield addressed the crowd, in between Clint Black ballads, he told them the last time he’d walked across Memorial Bridge was for the funeral of JFK Jr. The point, I guess, was that too was sad.
The Chuckle Brothers
We all need a break George
U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York(From Crooks & Liars)
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Hands up if you saw this on LGF
I wonder why Charles failed to report this? I mean the Abbas quote would've looked so good in one of his photoshops wouldn't it!
RAMALLAH -- Palestinian refugees, moved by the plight of survivors of Hurricane Katrina will present US Consul-General, Jake Wallace, with a $10,000 donation to the American Red Cross. The donation will be given today (13 September 2005) at 12 noon at the President’s Office in Ramallah.
Dr. Rafiq Husseini, Chief of Staff of President Mahmoud Abbas will offer the donation on behalf of the President and Palestinian refugees. The donation will be earmarked to those survivors most affected by the Hurricane – the displaced poor, elderly and disabled. Money was recently collected by Palestinian refugees in the refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Commenting on the donation, President Abbas notes, "On behalf of the Palestinian people and, in particular, the refugee communities of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, I wish to express our deepest sympathy with the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. With our humble donation, we feel it is important to show our concern since Palestinians know all too well the pain and hardship caused by being a refugee. We pray that they will soon be able to return to their homes."
This man almost died because of Bush's FEMA
And he has a name -- Edgar Hollingsworth. Remember it. Mr. Hollingsworth is 74 years old, and although he was found by California National Guardsmen at death's door inside his house in the flooded Broadmoor section of New Orleans, the wonderful news is that he is expected to live.You can read some more excerpts and some commentary here.
But he would almost certainly be dead, if troopers hadn't violated the orders they received from FEMA. Here's the amazing and infuriating story from the Orange County Register.
LGF: murdering journalists is good
We've long known that Charles has a pretty fascistic attitude towards journalism: those who support Bush/the War on Terror/Israel are good, those who oppose Bush/the War on Terror/Israel are bad. Charles does not acknowledge that the overwheling majority of journalists do not hold such black-and-white positions, that they see their job as accurately reporting the world not judging it (unlike Charles...), and that they are a diverse and often contradictory bunch who cannot be attributed cardbord cut-out agendas the way Charles and the Lizard Crew would like to.
Is it any wonder, then, that CJ and the Gang regularly make death threats against journalists who have fallen from their grace? Take the example of New Orleans, where Charles suggests that it would be a good idea to summarily execute those who take pictures of the dead being recovered (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17458). Why? Because in Charles' eyes they are damaging the great leader's reputation by showing it how it is.
Or take this example, in which the Lizards react to the news that respected solo war correspondent Kevin Sites has been hired by Yahoo (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17473):
#2 effoff 9/12/2005 08:25AM PDT
Another tool of the left. He should have been shot shortly after the terrorist.
#13 Ward Cleaver 9/12/2005 08:34AM PDT
Note to Kevin:
If you're ever in Fallujah again, watch out for those stray bullets!
/just a friendly warning (not)
Since when, exactly, have death threats and death wishes been part of serene, courageous, honest and wise debate, Charles?
Springing Into Action
Chuckie makes a funny
#25 Charles 9/13/2005 08:40PM PDT
Please note: comments advocating violence will be deleted.
#26 ronaldusmagnus 9/13/2005 08:40PM PDT
I would like to order one "small" Clue Bat from the LGF Store, same to be applied liberally about the head and shoulders of CAIR.
The Saudi Lord Lucan
Where's Osama? And, why haven't we found him yet?
This September 11 will mark the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. The media will focus on the ceremonies at the former World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, and other cities and towns around the country that will honor the dead. The Bush administration, meanwhile, will do its best to remind Americans that today’s George W. Bush -- except for the Watergate-era Richard Nixon, the most unpopular two-term president, at this point in his tenure, since scientiļ¬c polling began in the 1940s -- is the same man who led the country through tragedy.Read it all.
In truth, the anniversary should be the occasion for a thoroughgoing discussion of how America has combated terrorism in the last four years. And on that front, even the disaster Bush has created in Iraq takes a back seat to one overwhelming fact: By the time night falls on September 11, Osama bin Laden will have been at large for 1,461 days.
America vanquished world fascism in less time: We obtained Germany’s surrender in 1,243 days, Japan’s in 1,365. Even the third Punic War, in which Carthage was burned to the ground and emptied of citizens who were taken en masse into Roman slavery, lasted around 1,100 days (and troops needed a little longer to get into position back in 149 B.C.).
Who Said This?
Hmmmm.....
The British government shouldn't be taking any advice on anything or even talking informally to Ahmad Thomson, a British Muslim who had denied the Holocaust and alleged that a cabal of Freemasons and Jews put Tony Blair up to joining the Iraq War. These are hateful and unacceptable views totally ungrounded in reality, and no one who holds them could give any useful advice at all to Downing Street.Was it Charles Johnson? Was it one of his right wing chums? Was it hell! Doubt Charles will mention the fact that one of his main figures of fun and a person who LGF'ers accuse of anti-Semitism makes an excellent point. A far better point than LGF managed in fact.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
America's Deluded Self-Image
Andrew Stephen at the New Statesman on why America can't cope. He pulls no punches.
There are deeper explanations for the New Orleans catastrophe than anyone has dared suggest, writes Andrew Stephen. The roots lie in America's deluded self-imageRead it all.
We know, now, that there was not even a Prescott in charge in Washington. President Bush was exorcising heaven-knows-what demons by furiously riding his mountain bike in Texas - nobody, not even the Secret Service or a visiting Lance Armstrong, is allowed to pass him - while Vice-President Cheney was fly-fishing in Wyoming. Condoleezza Rice, next in charge, was shopping for shoes at Ferragamo's and watching Spamalot on Broadway and catching the US Open in New York; while Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, who is supposed to keep it all together, was taking in the sea breeze with much of the rest of the Bush crowd in Maine.
Rats gnawing at corpses floating down the streets three days after Katrina struck, bodies left to decompose in the stairwells of New Orleans's main hospital because its basement mortuary was flooded, tens of thousands still trapped, hungry and thirsty: only then did the inquests into what the Los Angeles Times called the "surreal foreignness" of it all start. But then the questioning was imbued with a peculiarly American self-righteousness and aggressive need to pin blame on the guilty: on the inattentiveness of the Bush administration, its lack of foresight, the racial and class divisions within the US, and so on.
In so far as they went, the inquests are justified. There is much guilt and blame to be shared around. It took the fury of Katrina to bring home to many the sheer hopelessness of Bush and his administration, both in their immediate response and in their prior lack of competent planning. The spectacle of countries such as Sri Lanka sending donations and Fidel Castro offering to send medical supplies with 1,100 doctors only underlined the desperate nationalistic need to find scapegoats to appease the shame.
But nobody, as far as I can see, has dared to suggest that there are deeper explanations for so disconcerting a shambles, explanations that transcend political parties or individuals. The self-image of America, now largely adopted in Britain, too, is that of a nation of uniquely hardy and resilient people predestined by God to be omnipotent in the world, be it against the forces of nature or of bogeyman dictators.
Because, in reality, the reverse is so often true - present-day Americans, after all, are the most pampered human beings in history - the myths, fostered by popular culture and especially Hollywood, have given rise to a complacency that is increasingly dangerous not only for the rest of the world but for Americans, too. Hardship is only momentary and can always be overcome, hard work will always be rewarded, and other such uniquely American traits, will result in a society that is matchlessly efficient and soars to ever greater triumphs: it ticks over so smoothly that even after the 11 September 2001 atrocities, Bush is still free to go off to bike, Cheney to fish, Rice to shop.
Making Advertising History
This is amazing, the Make Poverty History campaign ad has been banned from TV. Why you ask? Because it's too political.
An advert for the Make Poverty History campaign featuring celebrities including Brad Pitt, Kate Moss and Colin Firth clicking their fingers to make the point that a child dies every three seconds, has been banned by Ofcom for breaching rules on political advertising.How is making the point that a child dies every three seconds through poverty political advertising? It should shame all politicians of all political parties. It's hardly broadcasting their effectiveness, their plus points or an individual parties stance on the issue. It was banned because people don't want to see this type of hard hitting ad. People don't want to realise that there are children dying. Wearing a white bracelet is all well and good, but unless the message is broadcast far and wide nothing will change.
One broadcaster said it believed that "the underlying motivation of theReasonable opposing or balancing position? What did he/she expect? The Make History Widespread campaign!! This is not party political, this is not black and white, this is not us and them.......the campaign must encompass everyone who wants to stop the needless death of innocents through poverty.
campaign, namely to end world poverty, was such that there was no reasonable
opposing or balancing position that could be struck".
Kapo
It seems that only LGF'ers are allowed to get away with this kind of criticism and slur with regards Israel and Israelis.
102 alkmyst 9/13/2005 03:34AM PDTHow is this not a vile anti-semitic slur? Calling a Jew a Kapo and saying he doesn't know what it is like to act like a Jew is disgusting, even when directed at someone with a 'chequered past' like Sharon. This insult seems to be accepted on LGF, anybody who is Jewish and does not agree with their myopic and selfish view of Jews and Israel seens to be branded a Kapo or Judenrat. It's the equivalent of white supremacists labelling people as race traitors.
#97 ibmkeyboard 9/13/2005 02:26AM PDT
are you sure Sharon was not a nazi?
He was not a nazi.
That term is reserved for a different class of Jew hatred.
sharon is more like a kapo, an enabler - cuz he certainly doens't know what it is to act like a Jew.
What do we want? Revisionism! When do we want it? Now!
A curious LGF'er asks.
Does anyone know of a site that specifically shows that Bush and the administration did the right thing...hopefully a good timeline citing relevant authority?I'm sure Charles will supply it soon enough (if he hasn't already). No whitewash is tasteless enough for laughing boy when it comes to his beloved Bush. The Bush administration did the right thing in much the same way as Rush Limbaugh talked a lot of sense in the wake of the disaster.
Help! My loony left "friends" are driving me nuts.
PS you have 'friends'?
Losing Ground
More and more Americans are seeing the current quagmire in Iraq and are asking themselves serious questions about their nations involvement in the conflict.
Many adults in the United States remain concerned with the progress of the coalition effort, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates published in Newsweek. 49 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. is losing ground in its efforts to establish security and democracy in Iraq.
The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein’s regime was launched in March 2003. At least 1,895 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 14,300 troops have been injured.
On Aug. 28, Iraqi negotiators finalized the country’s new draft constitution. The 15 members of a Sunni Arab panel did not endorse the proposed body of law, which must be ratified in a nationwide referendum on Oct. 15.
Three pending issues have delayed the actual printing of the document. Sunnis have asked for changes to an article that defines Iraq as an Islamic—but not Arab—nation, Kurds have requested assurances to hold the two deputy prime minister positions, and Shiites wish to place the country’s water resources under the authority of the central government.
On Sept. 11, Shiite legislator Saad Qandeel urged for a quick review of the document, saying, "If we fail to reach an agreement by the end of the week, then they will print the present version of the draft unchanged. We can’t delay it more because we need time to print it." 46 per cent of respondents in the U.S. are confident that a stable democratic form of government will be established in Iraq over the long term, while 52 per cent disagree.
Polling Data
Now turning to the topic of Iraq. All in all, do you think the United States is making progress or losing ground in its efforts to establish security and democracy in Iraq?
Sept. 2005 Aug. 2005
Making progress
40% 40%
Losing ground
49% 50%
Don’t know
11% 10%
Monday, September 12, 2005
A Heck Of A Job
Who said this?
Brownie, you're doing a heck of a jobWho said this?
I quit!Unfortunately not George W. Bush.
Death Cult Hit Parade
Whack-a-doos!
Blogger HST comments on the Gaza Pull Out and makes this fantastic point about LGF'ers and will make their tiny minds spin. He/She is an Iraqi-Assyrian American progressive who is very pro-Israel......and a Democrat.
The whack-a-doos at LGF will tell you wanting Israel to pull out of parts of what is called "Palestinian" land is being an anti-Semite--which is ridiculous, of course, considering a majority of Israelis in Israel often want to take a softer approach to the Palestinian question. Should Israel be pulling out of Gaza? I don't know. If that is what Israelis in Israel want to do, I guess. I'm not an Israeli citizen. If it will reduce the slaughter is Israeli women and children without compromising Israel's future security, go ahead. Luckily, smarter people than me make that decision.
Nevertheless, America's support of Israel should never waver, so long as it is a democracy, and so long as its women and children are randomly targeted for killing.
Oooh Touchy!
Charles asks.
Google, which usually commemorates special days with little pictures or changes to their logo, decided not to do anything to mark September 11. (Hat tip: Son of the Godfather.)I dunno Charles, maybe they were afraid of wingnuts like you seeing Muslim symbology or iconography in it? I mean they wouldn't want to offend such a sensitive bunch of assholes like the right-wing blogosphere.
Perhaps they were afraid of offending Muslims?
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