Oops!

Remember kids, these people are 'challenging the dreaded 'MSM'!. I think Atrios got it right when they awarded them 'Wankers of the Day'.

Pajamas Burn Rate

Let's see now...

70 blogs being paid (guess) average $300/month each = $21,000

Office Rent/Utilities @ 3000/month = $3000

Bandwith charges for Pajamas Media. Can't be more than $20/month = $20

Web design = 0

Office Manager (say) $2000 = $2,000

"Staff" in Barcelona, Sydney & LA - (say) $2000/mo each $6,000

Sales/Research Staff (say) $10,000/mo total = $10,000

Inflated Salary for Charles Johnson & Roger Simon (say) $10,000 each per month = $20,000

GRAND TOTAL: $62,000 Per Month

Say $70,000 with "expenses". $70,000 per month for www.osm.org ???

WHY?

Good propaganda from Iraq

How long before these planted stories of 'good news' start cropping up in certain chickenhawk blogs? To be honest they're probably already there.

The Pentagon said it is looking into a newspaper report that said the US military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to run stories written by US troops to burnish the US image in Iraq.

"If all of the elements in that story were accurate, there are some things in there that I find troubling, and that's why I've asked for the facts," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

"It was news to me," he said.

The Los Angeles Times said the articles were written by US military "information operations" troops, translated into Arabic and placed in Iraqi newspapers with the help of a defense contractor called Lincoln Group.

It said many of the articles were presented as unbiased news accounts trumpeting the work of US and Iraqi troops, denouncing the insurgents, and touting US efforts to rebuild the country.

The report, citing records and interviews, said the US military had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish dozens of the stories since the effort began this year.

Iraqi staff of the Washington-based Lincoln Group sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives in their approaches to Iraqi media outlets, masking their connection to the US military, according to the report.

Whitman said the report was troubling because the practices it described appeared to be in conflict with the Pentagon's overarching information policy. But he would not be more specific.

"That's what we want to look at: what they're doing and under what authority they believe they are executing some of these things," he said.

Advertising? What Advertising?

You really got to ask, what the heck is going on here? The OSM/Pajama investors were supposedly investing in a business that made money by selling ads on the "mothership" PJ Media site, but also on all (70+) affiliated blogs. We haven't checked all 70+, but a quick sampling indicates that not only is PJ Media not placing ads on the affiliates, but the affiliates are sill using Blogads and Google Ads. These same affiliates are also being paid by PJ Media for the ads they are not showing. Why?

The PJ Media site has a few "mainstream" ads like Circuit City, but so lackluster, thin and dated is the content, it's hard to imagine many eyeballs and click-throughs. There's basically nothing on the PJ Media site that couldn't be done by a staff of one, merely supervising news feeds and pasting a few links and summaries.

So what is going on? Is Pajamas Media just a front for a Scaife-style "astroturf" operation, a way of sustaining Republican talking-points as an entire nation wakes up to the corruption and ineptitude of the Bushies and their cronies? It sure as hell isn't a viable business.

Advertising? Schmadvertising!

Pyjamas Media pokes fun at Pajamas Media and proves you don't need $7 million in the bank to make a good point.

The Adoration Of The Chimp

#182 Charles 4/28/2005 5:51:00 PM
I can't believe I once bought into the nonsense that Bush is "stupid." I think he's doing really well. He has good answers ready for every issue and delivers them with conviction.

#176 Charles 6/28/2005 5:26:47 PM
Excellent speech so far. It's amazing how far Bush has come as a public speaker.

#1564 Charles 8/11/2005 8:18:15 PM
Deranged lefties who use the term "Chimpy" to refer to the President will now be banned automatically. I'm really, really tired of that crap.

Bias or difficult truths?

Chuckles is complaing that The Australian has produced a biased headline against George W. Bush. Let's see.

Corrupt Bush ally resigns in shame

Was he corrupt?

He took bribes to the tune of $2.4 million dollars

Was he an ally of George W. Bush?

He was a Republican congressman. He is a staunch conservative.

Cunningham is known as a fairly strong conservative, often speaking against abortion, stem cell research, and a variety of other subjects.

Hardly an ally of Bill Clinton then, eh?

Did he resign in shame?

According to his own resignation letter he's full of shame, regret and sorrow.

So how is it a biased headline if it's stating fact? It's biased in LGFland because it's seen by them as an attack on their beloved Bush regime. That to Chuckles is inexcusable and a challenge to his Republican blog and his barmy comments section. His 'Operation Cover George's Ass' is really heating up.

Are PJMers beholden to the Mooniebat?

We've noticed that Charles Johnson's failed blogger empire OSM/PJM has dropped the official Chinese news agency Xinhua from its news sources. Will the powers that be at PJM do the same for UPI now?

UPI, for those who don't know it, is owned by News World Communications, which in turn is owned by the Unification Church led by the 'Rev' Sun Myung Moon. And Moon, as CJ should well know, is no friend of the Jewish people:

"To recreate Israel, the church and the state must become one as Cain and Abel. Instead they became one with Rome and captured and killed Jesus. They united with Rome. Who are the Jewish members here, raise your hands! Jewish people, you have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed 6 million Jews. That is why. God could not prevent Satan from doing that because Israel killed the True Parents. Even now, you have to determine that you will repent and follow and become one with Christianity through Rev. Moon." (Moon on 2 March 2003)

So Charles, how about it?

Divine Comedy

Charlie entertains the troops with a crazy story about a crazy man who believes that he is on earth to carry out God's will. Of course it's that fool Ahmadinejad again, this time claiming to be a Muslim holy figure.

Mad Mullahs, eh? Which other president on this planet would be so arrogant and full of naive faith to think he's doing God's work for him? Hmmmmm.....

"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did." - G.W. Bush

A mosque too far?

Charles Johnson is allegedly (according to his supporters) not anti-Muslim, he is allegedly anti-terrorist and anti-jihadist. If that is true what can his objections to the building of a mosque that will serve a large Muslim community?

British Dhimmitude Watch

Giant mosque for 40,000 may be built at London Olympics. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

What is there to say?

Is this linked to the war on terror? Is this linked to al-Qaeda? Is this linked to Iraqi insurgents? Is this linked to the Palestinian/Israeli situation?

Nope.

It's bigotry. Plain and simple, and his 'lizards' aren't ones to miss the opportunity.

#7 JammieWearingFool 11/27/2005 08:13PM PST
Great place for a work accident.

#8 quark2 11/27/2005 08:13PM PST
Oh wow, just stick an army of terrorists right under the noses of the games. Reminescient
of the German 1972 games anyone?

#9 jwm 11/27/2005 08:13PM PST
Alah's Roach Motel

JWM

#10 Stuck in california 11/27/2005 08:14PM PST
Be proud London! 70,000 potential terrorist...


#13 quark2 11/27/2005 08:18PM PST
I believe if I were an athlete I'd think twice about that set of games. A 40,000 moslim army
smelling your armpit they're so close!

#20 jcm 11/27/2005 08:23PM PST
I see vision of a trebuchet.

A trebuchet launching pigs.

Pigs squealing as they puncture the roof.

Pigs splattering all over the gathered.

Yes, a CRUSADER trebuchet.

#95 trigger girlie 11/27/2005 09:48PM PST
Burn it down and feed the ashes to the pigs. Everything England does is self-destructive, and I feel bad for the people who are the victims of the goverenmental appeasement. To all the Brits who are not willing to stick their asses out to the Mullahs: get out while you can, we have plenty of space here (we could free up some space by sending all the dhimmies to UK).

Hah, imagine them building a 70,000 people sinagogue or a church.

Further down the comment thread of similar moronic postings is a very interesting one. A one line link to an article....

130 albion 11/28/2005 05:31AM PST
Muslim food forced on English children

......by the openly fascist and holocaust denying BNP. Nice company this 'Lizardoid' keeps. What next, a David Duke article? Now I realise that the poster isn't exactly a regular (who has also linked to the French NF in the past) and I realise that there are some decent people over there that have objected to him linking to neo-nazi scum before but Charles needs to clean up a little.

CHARLES ON WARD CHURCHILL

A recent entry at LGF had these words:

“Churchill is a despicable character, and a hero of the “progressive” movement. Coincidence?”

I've been wondering about this claim of a strong connection between Ward Churchill and progressives. I hadn't heard of him before the wingnuts started to make a stink about his 2001 paper on 9-11 but I don't exactly have a good feel for the entire progressive movement in America.

I decided to do a little search work and see what liberals/leftists/progressives think about Ward Churchill. I used the online EBSCO database of magazines and searched liberal/left/progressive publications, using the "All Text" option, for mentions of "Ward Churchill."

I started with The Nation and the earliest reference to WC is 2/21/2005:

Title: Ward Churchill and the Mad Dogs of the Right ,
By: Cockburn, Alexander,
Nation, 00278378,
2/21/2005,
Vol. 280,
Issue 7

This was in response to the wingnut witch hunt of an obscure college professor, so I don't think we can conclude that The Nation considers WC a "hero", instead he is more like a victim. More to the point, until 2005 there is no mention of the 2001 WC article that caused so much bleeding at the ears at LGF and other places.

For the sake of comparison, I decided to use another professor - Noam Chomsky - who can legitimately be considered a hero of progressives, as a point of comparison. Chomsky of course has been around much longer than WC, so to be fair, I decided to limit my search to the last 16 years, 1990-2005. Even so, Chomsky wins hands down: 119 articles mention Noam to a mere 5 for WC, all after the witch hunt began.

Of course, The Nation isn't the only progressive publication so I checked a few others: Mother Jones, New York Review of Books, Harper's Magazine, Tikkun and Utne had no articles that mentioned WC. For Chomsky, the total number of articles was 23*. The Atlantic Monthly, Utne Reader, and Progressive had a total of 7 articles that mention WC but they were all about his work on Native American Indians. Chomsky's number for those same magazines is 75.

One would think that if WC was such a hero to progressives, especially for his 9-11 article, there would be many, many more articles that mention him approvingly.

*Two articles in NYRB dealt with linguistics and were excluded.

Cut and run Republicans

Number one: George W. Bush

To print or not to print?

That's not much of a question for Boris Johnson MP (Conservative). He's openly declared that he'd be happy to publish the 'memo' in which Bush suggests the bombing of al-Jazeera.

But if (Dubya’s) remarks were just an innocent piece of cretinism, then why in the name of holy thunder has the British state decreed that anyone printing those remarks will be sent to prison?

We all hope and pray that the American President was engaging in nothing more than neo-con Tourette-style babble about blowing things up. We are quite prepared to believe that the Daily Mirror is wrong. We are ready to accept that the two British civil servants who have leaked the account are either malicious or mistaken. But if there is one thing that would seem to confirm the essential accuracy of the story, it is that the Attorney General has announced that he will prosecute anyone printing the exact facts.

If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public need to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for, and in an important respect we become as sick and as bad as our enemies.

Good on him. He should be running for leader.

Hitchens: The darling of the neo-cons dissected

This is great. It's well worth a read.

"The Genocidal Imagination of Christopher Hitchens" by Richard Seymour

Murder on 'Route Irish'

This is horrific. Private 'security contractors' (why are they never called mercenaries these days?) have been caught out on video randomly shooting Iraqi civilians.

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad.

This story is far more deserving of the word 'wow' than cherry picking badly written comments at the Daily Kos site Charles. Bet it doesn't get a mention at LGF.

WTF IS SHE BABBLING ABOUT?

Hilarious!

You got to wonder if "angel investor" Aubrey Chernick and any others unfortunate enough to have been roped into this doomed deal are reading the kind of comments all over the "blogosphere"?

Inconvenient Truths

Chickenhawk Johnson is clearly peeved at this. It would be so much simpler to keep shilling for the Bush War if those messy American deaths and dismemberments were not mentioned often, or at all. On the other blood-flecked hand, Johnson can't devote enough of his revolting blog to slavering over Muslim deaths, anywhere and under any circumstances. Witness his gloating over any and all Israeli targeted assassinations (the "Car Swarm" feature at LGF), no matter how many innocent men, women and children are killed and injured as "collateral damage". The pudgy, silken-maned Johnson, with his blank button-like eyes and soft hands is the very embodiment of a modern Republican Ghoul.

And that's being polite about it.

AOL INFILTRATED BY LGF MOLES

The lizardoids have taken to lifting entire posts by Charles and putting them on at least one AOL message board. I guess "Pajamas Media" isn't doing so well. These are from AOL's "Breaking News from the War in Iraq " board.

LGF: Mama Moonbat Weeps
Cindy Sheehan at Daily “Screw Them” Kos: Open Letter to George Bush. (Hat tip: wingfam mom.)

AOL: Mama Moonbat Weeps
Cindy Sheehan at Daily “Screw Them” Kos: Open Letter to George Bush. (Hat tip: wingfam mom.) Posted by IMLMSDS

LGF: The KKK Goes to Syria
Lots of LGF commenters have pointed out that antisemitic white supremacist (and Cindy Sheehan fan) David Duke has been visiting Syria lately, but here’s a mind-warping article from Arab media in which he’s treated as a respectable US politician: David Duke in Damascus to express solidarity with Syria.

AOL:The KKK Goes to Syria
Lots of LGF commenters have pointed out that antisemitic white supremacist (and Cindy Sheehan fan) David Duke has been visiting Syria lately, but here’s a mind-warping article from Arab media in which he’s treated as a respectable US politician: David Duke in Damascus to express solidarity with Syria. Posted by IndictJohnKerry

LGF: Palestinians Vote for Convicted Terrorist
The Palestinian Authority called a vote to choose people to run for leader of Fatah (Arabic for “Conquest”), the crypto-terrorist organization whose “military wing” (that’s the “wing” that blows up buses and discotheques and pizza parlors) is known as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

AOL: Palestinians Vote for Convicted Terrorist
The Palestinian Authority called a vote to choose people to run for leader of Fatah (Arabic for “Conquest”), the crypto-terrorist organization whose “military wing” (that’s the “wing” that blows up buses and discotheques and pizza parlors) is known as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Posted by DragonEnraged

Caption contest #2

Some light relief on a Friday:

Shitting their pajamas

Excuse the fecal headline, but this link was asking for it: http://pajamasmedia.isfullofcrap.com/

IWU!

Pajamas Media Logo Contest

This is great. Proof positive of the fact that no matter who you are, Pajamas Media is shit. My personal favourite? This one.

Pajamron

Pajamas Media -- The Final Straw

Hidden away in an obscure thread on LGF, the flagship of Pajamas Media, Charles' comment promises to involve his rabid, racist "Lizardoid Minions" in the future of Pajamas Media. Simon and Johnson have seen the Sitemeter data they have hidden from everyone else and no doubt it shows an initial peak of interest followed by a precipitous dive as many found there was nothing of interest on the OSM site. Now, to get the needed pageviews, Charles is going to let in the rabid, raving "Minions".

I don't think his (few) advertisers are going to like it.

How long?

How long before people like Charles Johnson cry that the EU and the British writers are anti-semitic and overtly anti-Israel while conveniently ignoring the content of the report. The Israeli government is breaking international law and its own Roadmap (peace plan) agreement.

A confidential report written for European Union foreign ministers has criticised Israel's policy on East Jerusalem, newspaper reports say.

The document, written by British officials, accuses Israel of rushing to annex Arab areas to prevent them becoming a future Palestinian capital.

Who are the jailers?

Terry Waite asks "Were my captors worse than the Guantánamo jailers?"

Let me give a personal example. I was detained by a group of hostage takers in Beirut because they suspected me of engaging in dubious political activity. They blindfolded me and kept me in poor conditions without any contact with the outside world. They subjected me to physical and mental abuse during a lengthy period of interrogation. Had I not been able to convince them of my innocence I would not be walking free today. What is the essential difference between the methods deployed by my captors, who were labelled terrorists, and those of the authorities that detain suspects in Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere? They have been detained on suspicion and treated in a way that no civilised nation ought to condone.

A great Thanksgiving Day post from David Corn

Unfortunately for PajamasMedia it's on the far superior and professional Huffington Post.

The power of three

The horror and the carnage continues. Is this the 'noble cause'?

As the war in Iraq drags on, less and less attention is being payed to the daily carnage there.

In addition to the hundreds of Iraqis dying every week, an average of three American troops are dying every day there. In the first 24 days of this month, 75 GIs have lost their lives.

Also the Daou Report also has this excellent piece. THE STRAW MEN OF IRAQ: Ten Pro-War Fallacies.

Friday's hastily staged congressional vote on withdrawal from Iraq may have been designed to embarrass John Murtha, but the raucous session offered valuable insight into the various rationales for war and the tactics used to attack Democrats who oppose Bush's Iraq policy. A parade of House Republicans went after the Dems and laid out a surprisingly weak case for the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq. Here, in my view, are ten of the leading pro-war fallacies...

1. VIRTUALLY EVERYONE WHO SAW THE INTELLIGENCE BELIEVED SADDAM HAD WMD, THEREFORE BUSH IS BEING UNFAIRLY SINGLED OUT FOR CRITICISM

The typical framing is: "Democrats got the same intelligence and reached the same conclusion, so blaming Bush for misleading America is purely political." The argument is also presented in 'gotcha' form by people like Sean Hannity, who use a lengthy blind quote about the threat posed by Saddam that turns out to be from Bill Clinton, John Kerry or some other Democrat. The conclusion is that if Bush was lying, they must have been lying too.

There is a false assumption underlying this argument, namely that Dems received the same intel as Bush (they didn't), but setting that aside, here are two reasons why this is a straw man:

a) The issue is not whether people believed Saddam had WMD (many did), or whether there was any evidence that he had WMD (there was), it's the fact that Bush and his administration made an absolute, unconditional case with the evidence at hand, brooking no dissent and dismissing doubters inside and outside the government as cowardly or treasonous. That's what "manipulating the intelligence" and "misleading the public" refers to, the knowing exaggeration of the case for war (whether by cherry-picking intel or using defunct intel or by speaking about ambiguous intel in alarming absolutes). As I wrote in this post: "There we were, more than a decade after the first gulf war, two years after 9/11, and Saddam hadn’t attacked us, he hadn’t threatened to attack us. And then suddenly, he was the biggest threat to America. A threat that required a massive invasion. A bigger threat than Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, Bin Laden. A HUGE, IMMEDIATE threat. It simply defied belief."

b) In addition to the fear-mongering described above, the contention that Bush 'misled' the public is not simply about Saddam's WMD, but about the way the administration stormed ahead with their plans and invaded Iraq in the way they did, at the time they did, with the Pollyannaish visions they fed the world, all the while demonizing dissent and smearing their critics.

In both (a) and (b), the crux of the issue is proportionality. Whether or not Bill Clinton or France or the U.N. believed Saddam was a threat, the administration's apocalyptic words and drastic actions (preemptively invading a sovereign nation) were decidedly out of proportion to the level and immediacy of the threat. THAT is the issue.

Please, read it all.

The Clown Show

Charles and Roger have a big problem. A HUGE problem. They've flipped their flop web-site back to Pajamas Media, and had registered www.pajamasmedia.com as a web address, but what they really really need is something easier to remember and type, and that doesn't need spelling out -- as in "is it Pyjamas or Pajamas? (both are valid spellings). How would you like to explain that a zillion times? Worse, someone has registered the alternative spelling of www.pyjamasmedia.com as, well, it's hard to say what. * So a "contraction" of Pajamas Media as PJM or PJMedia, dot-net or dot-com seems to be essential.

But:

www.pjmedia.net - is the personal blog of "Per-Jarle Heggelund", an artist in Europe.
www.pjmedia.com - is a computer consultant in TN.
www.pjm.com - "the world's largest (electrical) grid operator."

And www.pjm.net (screen cap above) seems to belong to a name-broker/squatter in Asia. Ouch!

But as long as any (or all) of the above don't find out that Johnson and Simon are rolling in cash, and have raised $3,500,000 in venture capital, the prospects seem good that one of them will part with their domain for some reasonable bucks.

It's not like anyone would tell them. Is it?

* How could Johnson and Simon let that one slip? They must have known about the alternative spelling. These guys are frankly, dumb. As in stupid. And careless.

Picking Scabs

Someone's registered 'Open Sore Media' and they're happily blogging away there. Check it out. As usual: it wasn't us!

When teamwork goes wrong

Who does Charlie J turn to when he needs to exorcize the ghost of his failed blogging venture, OSMorg, by hammering an MSM outlet with spurious allegations of corruption and bias? The Ghostbusters? The A-Team? No, Team Hollywod. Who they? in their own words:

Fighting for truth, justice and the American way, young marketing professionals
Preska Thomas, Kevin Finn, and Joseph Berish call themselves Team Hollywood.
In The Index: A Road Map they expose white-collar terrorism used by foreign
interests against U.S. corporations, illegal litigation, and media misconceptions
falsely sold to the American public.

Ha. Hah. Hahaha.

Stupid questions

OSM/PJM 'staff' in Barcelona ask "To bomb, or not to bomb (al-Jazeera)?" and tell us about blogger reaction to the Mirror's story about the US apparently pondering taking out the Arab news station's offices in Qatar.

What OSM/PJM 'staff' fail to mention is that the US has bombed al-Jazeera. Twice: on 13 November 2001 they bombed the al-Jazeera offices in Kabul and on 8 April 2003 they bombed the al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad.

In light of that...

You go, girls!

Five women from the same family in Pakistan's Punjab province have refused to be "united" with their prospective husbands as ordered by tribal elders.

The village council has told them to "honour" 1996 childhood marriages, when the youngest of them was just five.

Elders ordered the marriages to resolve a feud between the girls' family and a rival one - a practice now outlawed.

The refusal to marry has renewed tensions, leading to a shooting incident and arrests on both sides.

See, we can repost links to MSM articles too and call it blogging.

Journalism? Isn't that so, 20th century?

We're not normally in the business of giving away free advertising, but this seems to have merit: Chad Wilcox, Program Assistant at the Institute for Humane Studies, has written to us telling us about a competition they are having over at the Institute. Here's the lowdown, in case any readers are interested:

In honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Felix Morley, the Institute for Humane Studies awards $5,000 in cash prizes to outstanding writers whose work reflects the principles of individual and economic freedoms including the First Amendment, voluntarism, the rule of law, and inalienable individual rights.

The competition is open to young writers (25 years of age or younger as of December 1, 2005) and all full-time students. Articles published July 1, 2004 through December 1, 2005 are eligible for consideration. For more information or to apply online, please visit the contest website at www.TheIHS.org/morley or apply directly at apply.theihs.org.

Deadline: December 1, 2005

If you meet the eligibility requirements for this competition we strongly encourage you to apply. We also encourage you to pass this information along to students and young journalists in your network, and to your readership. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at cwilcox1@gmu.edu.

So there you are. If you want to advertise on this site too, please contact our sales department on 0800-the-train-wreckers

Circle Jerk at the Square Dance asks.....

What kind of conservative blogger are you?

Pajamas Media Best of the Blogs!

If you wander over to OSM...sorry I mean Pajamas Media....no sorry I mean Clusterfuck Central you'll see their Best of the Blogs section has a fantastic post.

Frying a turkey!

Now far be it for me to question whether this really is the 'Best of the Blogs', but I'm just interested why it's a good idea to post a guide to cooking a turkey when Roger and Chuckles can't even manage to name one properly?

Peeing their pajamas

This is funny.

Excuse us while we pee ourselves with embarrassment by Catch.com.

The picture made me laugh more than the actual satire.

We Report, You Decide

If Roger L Simon and Charles Johnson aren't just big f-ing LIARS!

From the "we are changing our name back" post on Open Source Media-Media's site today:

So how did this happen in the first place? Back at the beginning, certain, shall we say, paternalistically minded parties (i.e., the guys in suits decided that we should act like grownups, and being as yet somewhat immature—at least as businesspeople--we did as we were told. Which is how, one day, we ended up sitting around a conference table listening to representatives from a "branding" company. What followed is still a bit of nightmarish blur, but it involved a PowerPoint presentation on the history of names, and such probing questions as, "If you were an animal, what animal would you be?" (Which is how we almost ended up as Jellyfish Media.) Enough said. So, in the spirit of"open source," we thought we’d tell you the real story behind the reason for our name change. And hope that our corporate parents will be satisfied with good grades and healthy revenue.

So that's the story today. A while back though, Roger Simon wrote on his site:

Some people have criticized the name "Pajamas Media" itself as lacking, shall we say, in gravitas. And, although we enjoy the hat tip to an important event in blog and media history, we recognize that it is perhaps not serious enough to be the long term public face of our endeavor. We had been playing with the title Blog News Service, but that too may not be broad enough for what we intend to do: return media to the citizens - in this case the online citizens.

Both of these accounts can't be true.

Update: Reader NR points out that:

In their witty post marking the return to Pajamas Media, Roger and Chaz [...] claim a "branding company" forced them to change the name to "Open Source Media"; the truth is, Roger had a thread on his site asking for names, and "Open Source" was was a prominent suggestion from many of his commenters:

"OpenSourceNetwork"
"'Open Source Network' was good.
'Open Media Network" was too.
"I do like the stress on open source or independence.
eg.:
Independent News Network
Open Source News Network"
"I like Rick's suggestion of "Open Source Network" - OSN."

Maybe they're suggesting Roger's commenters are a "branding company?"

More ad blocking

Regular reader D. writes:

... You mentioned the built in ad blocker for Firefox, there is a similar
item for Safari from a third party developer that I have always used, "Pith Helmet". Works wonders, I love seeing those little grey boxes where annoying adds used to be. Nice to know Chaz is getting burned by something so nice and good.

OhMyGod!Media

An anonymous reader has an important point to make regarding the (now defunct?) OSMorg logo:

Look at how the OSM logo starts out... it's a CRESCENT! They must support terror states!

A valid observation. We hope - but don't expect - Charles Johnson will take full responsibility for this embarrasment and do the honorable thing.

Pretty Pictures

While we wait for the dust to settle over the train wreck that was once Open Source Media Media (TM-not), here's a question to ponder: are Charles, Roger and the gang paying for their use of (c) images or not?

We're just asking because while news and picture agencies might not be too worried about the use of low-res images on blogs (even those with high traffic and a bit of advertising revenue), things might be different if they know a particular site is a purely commercial operation with $3.5 million in start-up funding.

At the moment most 'news' pictures carry the tag 'photo courtesy of ...', which would imply that CJ and The Hat aren't paying, but maybe we're wrong. Can anybody suggest how we might find out?

OSM RIP

Pajamas Media is reborn. The crowds go mild. They blame the whole debacle on 'guys in suits'. They're called businessmen lads, and be nice, after all they gave you $3.5 million to create the disaster that was OSM.

A 'Lizardoids' solution for OSM

This is great!

#21 NiceLass 11/21/2005 04:35PM PST

I have an idea for OSM. Attach a message board discussion forum to it. You’ll get so much traffic you won’t know what to do. Just appoint some trusted lizardoids as moderators and you’ll be in business!

Charles must be weighing that idea up as I type. I mean, you've got a project that's going down like the Titanic, everyone thinks your CEO is acting like a prick, even your friends are laughing at you........I KNOW! Let's turn the thing into a sub-LGF circle jerk. That'll really turn things around and get people on our side.

(I can't quite work out wether the poster is being sarky or incredibly stupid, it's difficult with the 'lizardoids').

(credit to Mr. Spock)

Just to add to the confusion....

According to Chuckles, Pajamas Media still exists and editorial board profiles for OSM are still being put up there. All this clarity must be really reassuring their backers, eh?

We've been duped!

It turns out that lame excuse for a blogging empire, OSMorg, is actually a smokescreen!

The REAL OSM Media is actually here, and by Jove, it's a hell of a lot better than what they'd been feeding us on OSMorg.

Wow, did they fool us...

A racist, crazed, reactionary demagogue writes.....

This is fantastic. Melanie Phillips comes clean

Now we are told that the riots in France by Muslim and Arab youths from the banlieues — the city suburbs — have nothing to do with Islam but are the result of poverty, unemployment, racism and discrimination. Those who say, au contraire, that Islam is at the core of the disorder are being vilified as far-right racists and crazed reactionary demagogues.

Well done, Melanie. Couldn't have said it better myslef. Must've taken some bravery to out yourself in such an open way.

The Michelle Malkin (and husband) Show

Michelle throws around the racist and sexist card without a shred of evidence. Why? She finally had to admit her husband helped write her blog (and possibly book). The same husband that hasn't worked since her career took off. Hmmm.

Islamofascists can't get laid

What if the rise of radical Islamism among Muslim youth in Europe is in fact a symptom of a crisis of belief? What if the young men who turn to jihadism do so for the most part because they can’t get laid — because the girls they think should be theirs are turning them down because they can’t stand the idea of life with a dickhead 20-something would-be patriarch and have given up the religion?

An interesting appraisal of the Islam in Europe question over on Gauche.

Man of mystery or complete asshole?

Now I'm sure everyone has read Dennis the Peasant's final blog post about the shady dealing of Roger L. Simon and his lapdog Chuckles, but please spare a couple of minutes reading this fantastic piece by Snarkette over at Irritainted. It really pulls everything together and asks serious questions about the integrity, professionalism and ability of OSM's rather shambolic CEO.

Signs

I didn't pay much attention to this the first few times I saw it, just an attempt to pad the acres of whitespace that is OSM, a content Kalihari. Surely, I thought, they'll change this soon. With 70 trumpeted "best of" bloggers, promoted from hundreds found less worthy, I expected a rotation of pithy quotes, bon mots and wingnut zingers from the blogstars. But no, this turgid prose has hung there like a festering rat impaled on spines by a Loggerhead Shrike. Finally, it demands a moment of examination. Okay, done. It is pompous gobbledygook of the illiterate kind.

Along with the genre-garbled shotgun newsfeeds, the astoundingly boring mono-topic layout, the fact that OSM is platformed on an Open Source (free) application by Zope, hardly modified, you really have to wonder:

Other than the lavish party, where has the money gone?

Not on the blog, that's for sure.

Could OSM start a blog war?

That's the question the Private Radio blog is asking. I don't think it will at all. A couple of minor squabbles hardly constitutes a war.....and anyway both left, right and centrists are all uniting in either criticising, laughing at or just generally being snide about the whole OSM affair.

UPDATE: Then again I may be wrong. A new storm could be brewing.

Tunnel vision

Some people only see what they want to see, and some people only report what suits their end. Barcepundit, OSMorg's fabled 'Western Europe Editor' (hey, can I be Central Europe editor?) who made the world of journalism stop with his groundbreaking reposts of wire articles has a lot to say about Spanish PM Zapatero's poor poll ratings and Robert Mugabe's attempts to join the nuclear club, but he has nothing to say at all about the appearance of a bunch of lousy fascists on the streets of Madrid today.

"...I can't see them la-la-la-la they're not there la-la-la-la..."

Kevin Sites returns to Fallujah

Kevin Sites, the journalist who filmed an injured Iraqi being shot dead at point blank by a US soldier during the assault on Fallujah, has returned to the city and written about his experiences then - and since then.

Read it here

Scare stories debunked

The next time you hear or read a rabid right-winger complaining about political correctness and how Islam is changing Britain and/or the world, you should simply ask them to investigate the story themselves first and not take the tabloid press, internet news sources or intemperate blogs word for it. Or any of the other frothing at the mouth nutcase sources either. This is a classic example.

The OSM Manchurian Candidates

Daily Kos has this amusing piece on OSM's strange obsession with official Communist Chinese Party propaganda. Could Simon and Johnson be Communist plants?

OSM is 'not sufficiently compelling' says Corn

Not sufficiently good say I. Seems like one of OSM's token liberals is finding life tough working with the Roger and Chuckles clown school.

I'm still waiting to see OSM straighten itself out. The debut was hardly that of a powerhouse site, and changes, I'm told, are in the works. I hope quickly in the works. The site needs more action, pizzazz, and raison d'etre. Believe me, I've thrown much more than two cents into the internal discussion about the site, its problems, and the potential solutions. Before the launch, left-of-center bloggers and some visitors to this site were fretting it would be the HQ for neocon shock-troops on the Web. Vanity Fair's James Wolcott and I had a back-and-forth on the subject, with Wolcott comparing the OSM gang to Dr. Josef Mengele. But OSM's startup problems have not been ideological; they've been editorial. The content and presentation have not been sufficiently compelling.

Added to this one of OSM's leading lights actually agrees with Mr. Corn, a lot apparently. It looks like some people are going to really regret shelling out $3.5 million on this donkey.

UPDATE: Another OSM blogger has questions and suggestions for the floundering web based Titanic. Are they listening to their own people?

A "Rube" Bites Back

Rings true. Just read it.

a question of competence

Johnson and Simon Arrive at Open Source Media &trade Media Headquarters

OSM News?

What do our sore eyes see? According to the headline story on OSM right now 'OSM News' is reporting a new Zarqawi tape. OSM News? Has OSM got some sort of intrepid newsgathering unit which beat the rest of the world's media to this incredible scoop? Let's click through and see...



Ah. The story comes from the Canadian Press. Not 'OSM News'. 'OSM News' is simply a page on 'OSM.org' which reproduces a Canadian Press report via Newstex. 'OSM News' is a fraud. Just like the rest of OSM.


PS: Take a look at the bottom of the first snap: Keep Digging: WMD. Indeedy...

OSM: What about the ads?

Take a look at the picture to the right Notice anything? There's nothing there, except a small 'advertising' tag.

This is what appears when visitors using Firefox and the 'Adblocker' plugin visit OSM.org, Charlie J's new blogging venture.

The Adblocker plugin, as the name indicates, blocks adverts, in particular those which are loaded from a known list of ad serving domains such as doubleclick.com and realmedia.com.

So not only are OSM's ads (a key part of its flimsy business plan) automatically blocked by many web users' browsers, they're obviously not even using their own servers to run ads.

In fact, we suspect they aren't even selling any ads yet: OSM has simply signed up to a few easy ad programs.

So much for the media empire, guys...

Pants On Fire

Squeaky and The Hat get caught in a BALD FACED LIE.

What is it with Republicans and lying?

OSM Daily Roundup

Since we're not allowed to post even one word from One Source Media Media (OSM Media), without violating their Terms Of Use Agreement, we'll have to use their writing "style" to summarize the top story there this morning.

One Source Media (tm) Media Roundup.

Compiled by LGFWatch Staff in the US and UK and maybe somewhere else.

Story: About Politics, we think it's okay to say "The House". Some stuff about the spending bill being turned down. (They probably saw it on CNN/FOX/ABC/CBS/NBC/MSNBC but that's just a guess). They credit the information to KRT News. They say it might be something to do with President Bush's declining popularity. Some blogger called "Mike" says it's like Blair not doing well. Some blog with "Monkey" in the name says it's a sign of President Bush's declining popularity. Another blogger called "Dave" is mad. Some blog with "Huston" in the name accuses someone of something to do with Pork and Cards. (ed: I think they meant to spell "Huston" Houston, but maybe not because they've spelt it this way several times before). Then some other bloggers say some things and it ends with a truly lovely homily, except we can't say what.

OK. That's it. Wish we could tell you more, but they have a lot of money for lawyers.

The Misadventures of Squeaky and The Hat

OSPM (Open Source Poor Man) links to the following letter, (PDF file) from the real OSM to the namejackers, Squeaky Johnson and Roger the Dodger.

Magic Word of the Day: Astroturf. What else can explain this turkey getting funded?

Will the Saudis never learn?

Flogging people for trying to engage in intelligent debate isn't going to make you any friends except among the Taliban. Is that where you want to be heading?

All your open source belong to us...so there!

The bloggy folks OSM have decided it's time to confront the allegations that they stole the name 'Open Source Media' by pointing out that they're only tradmarking the letter combination 'OSM' and not the phrase 'Open Source Media', which is merely "a description of what we are and do, not a trade name".

End of story. Except, it isn't:

For one, the acronym OSM is shared by:
- the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
- the Office of Surface Mining
- Oregon Steel Mills, Inc.
- Orient Ship Management
- OSM Component Development Strategies
- Open Source Matters
- the Office of Spectrum Management
- Open Systems Management
- and Offshore Software Management

all of whom presumably have a stake in 'OSM'. And that's only the first page of Google results...

It will be interesting to know what they think of a bunch of upstart bloggers coming along and trademarking their initials. Somebody should contact them.

The second point to make is that PJM/OSM don't address the crucial question of just what is so open source about their media. As every fool knoweth, open source is a pretty well-defined term. As far as we can tell from here, it described neither who OSM are nor what they do.

OSM Responds To Namejacking Accusations

Unfortunately, under the draconian strictures of OSM's Terms Of Use Agreement, we cannot quote what they say without risking legal action.
OSM forbids any reposting of anything on their site. In fact, we cannot even post their TOUA here without also risking legal action from them.

Now, that's Open Source Media!

Things ill Begun....

Oh My...
Ouch...
Uh-Oh...
Yikes...
Incoming!

And for up-to-date one-stop viewing of the Misadventures Of Squeaky Johnson and Roger The Dodger, Dennis The Peasant has it all.

Terrified Lizards Reassured.

After numerous Lizards posted panicky messages fearing their beloved clubhouse was going to be sanitized, racist and bigoted commentary banned or even, heaven forefend, shut off forever, Charles steps in to quell the tremulous voices:

#371 Charles 11/16/2005 10:44PM PST

This will be the 4th or 5th time I've repeated that LGF will not be changing -- in fact, it is part of my deal that LGF will not change. No one wants LGF to change. No one has asked me to spend less time at LGF, and no one has asked me to change LGF. If they did, I wouldn't be involved in this venture.

I hope I'm making myself clear here. You folks who are worried about negative effects on LGF are winding yourselves up over nothing.

Clear as a bell, Charles. Let the hate-mongering continue! Genocide-fantasists, torture-enthusiasts, 24/7 Muslim-bashers and rabid flag-wrapped lunatics continue as before!

Probably, none of the OSM advertisers, Circuit City, for example, care one bit about LGF. Probably never even looked at it. And it's not like LGF is part of OSM anyway... oh, wait...

Ah. Well, what they don't know won't hurt them. Do Muslims even buy appliances?

So this is it?

Here we are, the first OSM story, "compiled by OSM Staff in Barcelona" (i.e. Jose Guardia) is about the deal to open up the Gaza crossing at Rafah under Palestinian/EU control.

OSM are so incredibly hip, so unmainstream, so radical, so revolutionary that the first sources they quote are the AP and the CSM (1). Way to go. That'll show the MSM.

Style-wise, their "Barcelona staff" obviously have a lot to learn (2). Never mind, it's OPEN SOURCE!

"Blogger A thinks..." (3)

Spelling isn't their strong point either (4)

Sort out your style guide (5)

"...and blogger B says..." (6)

...and that's it. Are we supposed to believe that somehow this constitutes a breaking point in publishing? This is just a bunch of bloggers who wish they could get published on Open Democracy, Salon, Wired or Slate.

"Keep digging" indeed.

PS: Comments are back :-)

Very original

Open Source Operating System



Open Source Web Browser



Open Source Media?

What's in a logo?

So 'Open Source Media', Charles Johnson's attempt to go legit after years in the racist wilderness, has a fancy logo, and it looks a lot like a lot of other logos.

As you can see, it's a swirly 'O'. 'O' as in Open Source. 'O' as in "Oh shit, where's my $3.5 million gone?". 'O' as in "Oh my, did we really think that was going to work?".

The most telling thing about the logo is the image it presents of a circular, tail-biting non-entity engaging in an ever faster, ever more viscious spin cycle.

PS: Yes, that line underneath the logo is what appeared on the site at 10:50 GMT. Prescient or what?

Pajamas by any other name.

It seems churlish to bash PJ Media's re-labeling itself as "Open Source Media" before tomorrow's grand launch, but we'll do it anyway. It's our job.

Firstly, what a terrible name. Leaving aside the uncomfortable fact the name belongs to someone else, It's clunky. Try saying "Open Source Media" three times quickly. Sensing that, Charles and Roger suggest "OSM". Catchy, huh? Nearly as good as "MLE" or "EKS".

It's dishonest as well. The naming allusion is to "Open Source Programming" which at least 3% of the population know is a way for many people to collaborate on software development. But the operating model of OXN... uh.. OSN.. whatever... is anything but "open". It's top-down content management by Republicans Johnson and Simon and their hand-picked wingnut "Editorial Board", (the part of Alan Colmes being played by David Corn). And does anyone really think that Editorial Board is going to have any say in what gets posted day to day? Nah, it's gonna be Charles and Roger, new bosses same as old bosses.

As a fine example of Pajama-Speak, ponder this pomposity from Simon:

Citizen journalism at its best means the pursuit of the truth above all things, above partisanship or the financial interests of the medium publishing it." (Roger Simon, OSM Founder).

He also told AP the following:

The site will transcend labels and include bloggers of all political leanings."

All political leanings? Oh, please. "Above partisanship", really?

Just look at OSM's Blogroll.

If it leaned any further right it would fall right over. Partisan? Uh...

Why are Republicans such liars?

P.S. - to listen to streaming audio of Judith "Queen of All Iraq" Miller's address to the Pajama People at their Inaugural Ball, click on www.pajamasmedia.com Weds AM for a link. We'd provide a hyperlink here, but Mr "Openness" Johnson has blocked links from this site.

Pajama Spin Machine?

Dennis The Peasant (boy, did they cross the wrong person!) makes a persuasive case that PJ Media (or whatever it will be called come Thursday) is unlikely to make any money. It raises an intriguing possiblity, that profit is not necessary. The promotion of Republican talking-point blogs, one aspect of "Astroturfing", is a goal for which plenty of funding is available, as recent history suggests.

Look's like someone's been reading LGF

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- A dozen members of a far-right party held a brief protest in front of the French Embassy on Saturday, defying a ban on the rally by Prague authorities.

The National Party said it had planned the "protest against black violence" and what it called "racial terror in France."

Prague's City Hall this week banned the demonstration, saying its aim would be to incite racial hatred as its organizers had voiced opposition to violence "committed by immigrants of non-French origin, mainly from Africa" when announcing the event.

A dozen or so party members gathered in defiance of the ban, and briefly displayed banners that read "Islam in Europe leads to terrorism in the streets" and "Black racism" before they left....continue

Powerline Disses LGF

Scott Johnson of "Powerline" appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" with Howard Kurtz today. They discuss the Dan Rather CBS National Guard kerfuffle (again). Scott Johnson gets into a technical description of typefaces etc. No mention of Charles Johnson, LGF and the "flashing memo". None. Nada.

Clearly, there is no honor amongst wingnuts. Or even professional courtesy, it seems.

Charles is seething. And whining. (To use two of his favorite descriptions).

BDS - Redefined.

Chuck is fond of accusing those who would dare question Glorious Leader as being victims of "Bush Derangement Syndrome", all 65% (and climbing) of us, one supposes. It's a tired, lame routine but puke-worthy today as he tries to slap that label, and a "hate America" one to boot, on an impassioned commentator who just happens to have lost her Nephew in Iraq a few months ago.

Her words are worth reading.

Chickenhawk Johnson's are only worthy of contempt.

(ref: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/lgf-artmail.php?article=18222)

Citizen Journalists

Hard to do any real journalisiming when your "research" amounts to listening to PillBoy, watching Faux and reading the increasingly hysterical bloviatings of your far-right fellow-reactionaries, so it's not surprising that Johnson and his ilk fall so very very short of anything remotely like reporting. (Witness Johnson's pathetic flogging of the "blinking memo" at any and every opportunity). Johnson, in fact, hardly tries. His postings are nothing more than wrappers for his endless cut-n-pasting of the work of others, with a few snarky words thrown in. The reality-based community seems far better at finding stuff out.

Ponzi Media Puzzles

Any plucky VC handing cash to Charles and Roger to launch *.* Media has probably downed a handful of Xanax after reading Dennis The Peasants fine investigation linked below. Well here's more bilious food for worried thought: Chuck has very publicly posted "help wanted" notices on LGF and here on PJ Media's cobbled-together website. It seems more than passing strange that many months after first advertising for a Sys Admin and an Intern neither position, apparently, has been filled. Or did someone just forget to take the notices down? Of course, finding an intelligent Sys Admin who could pass a Bushite Loyalty Test could be very challenging. On the other hand, if there's no system, you don't need an Admin. Zantac anyone?

Charles Johnson: holocaust denier sympathizer sympathizer

So Charles Johnson approves of blogger Scott Burgess, who cites the openly fascist Jean Marie Le Pen as a trustworthy source on the reasons for the recent unrest in France's banlieux. Jean Marie Le Pen, who in 1987 described the holocaust as a "detail of history"?

Nice, Charlie, nice. Must be a case of your enemy's enemy being your friend, eh?

Next time you accuse other people of supporting holocaust deniers (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18182), check with the hypocrisy department first befor you make a fool of yourself again.

Did US use chemical weapons against Iraqi civilians?

Information Clearinghouse has a translation of a La Repubblica article with the disturbing allegation that US forces bombed Fallujah with white phosphorous and napalm. Read here.

If this turns out to be true, will George W Bush face a war crimes tribunal?

Dada

Charles Johnson makes a rare astute comment on the happenings in the banlieux: they're the product of disaffection and nihilism in the face of crushing (post?)modernity - not the work of organised Islamic militants, as some commentators have been trying to make us believe.

We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the "tabula rasa". At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order. (From Wikipedia's entry on Dadaism)

You'd better learn French...

...if you want to understand the root causes of the troubles in Paris's suburbs: http://bouna93.skyblog.com/

Back in the USSA!

Scott Carson over at antiwar.com blog asks this important question.

Does it bother anyone that the US government is using former Soviet gulags in Eastern Europe to torture the people they kidnap? That our leader, Dick Cheney, is actively pressuring the senate to exempt the CIA from the new torture ban as his stooge threatens to veto?

That's interesting. Especially as Charles Johnson had such a hissy fit when Irene Khan called Guantanamo 'the Gulag of our time'. Where's his outrage now when his own beloved Bush regime is aping the Stalinist regimes of the Cold War? Nowhere to be seen. Then, he was outraged that a Muslim woman made the remark. Now? Nothing. In light of recent findings, Guantanamo is the tip of a very large network. Will Charles find time to mention this? Only if the Daily Kos take the piss out of him for it.

Malevolant Michelle's Pajama Business Plan

Part of the excitement is the uncertainty. Who knows what it’s going to become? I feel really honored and excited to be a part of this really stellar group of people. One of the things that is awesome to me is being in touch with so many of the people involved -- and still knowing I’ll probably never meet them in person. These are people I link to, and share interests and passions with. The amount of intellectual capital that has been gathered together is stunning to me. The mainstream media is so resistant to change. I’m not going to sit around waiting for them to catch up.

"Squeak, squeak..."

Who's blogging now?

Michelle 'So bigoted she'd arrest herself for trying to cross a border' Malkin has joined PJM. Whether you agree with her or not, the big question is whether it will be her writing for PJM or her husband? As it's not quite clear who does it on 'their' site.

"Pompous self-serving goofballs"

Blog Bloke gives his opinion on Pajamas Media. He no likey!

So there you have it folks. The brightest stars in the virtual firmament who are going to "re-define journalism in the 21st century".

Can you believe the hype? The kahunas! A bunch of pompous self-serving goofballs if there ever was.

And speaking of balls, here I thought re-defining journalism is what the blogosphere is all about, even without the help of PJs et al. Silly me.

[...]

Guys, you've got it all mixed up. If you want a one-sided conversation find a soap box and run for public office. Or better still make an application to CNN.

If you want to write a book then write the stinkin' book. If you want to build an exclusive empire so you can call the shots, give Bill Gates a call. But if you want to blog, join the community.

BUT damn it choose, because they're different. Got it? (Are you listening Glenn)?

Can somebody please explain to me how all this nonsense benefits the blogosphere? Oh yeah right, I forgot - it doesn't.

Read it all here.

Reporting a la Johnson

This one really takes the biscuit: Charles posts a short item with a link to another website, commenting

The glory of shari’a: 8 Year Old Iranian Boy Caught Stealing Bread. (Warning: disturbing but not gory photos.)

Anyone clicking through will indeed see some disturbing pictures, but all is not as it seems (or as Charles claims it to be). The boy in the picture is actually part of a cruel but physically harmless 'circus trick'. As one Iranian on the forum points out:

I'm an Iranian and I've seen these pictures in a report in a local newspaper before.
It's not a 'punishment' or anything like that. If it was a punishment they wouldn't put the soft thing under the boy's arm.

According to the report, the man in the picture is making a show of the boy's abilities just to make money from the people standing there. This is their everyday activity. Very Very sorrowing.

Please be careful not to post anything that you don't have enough information about.
And don't post such things which are to make hate in the hearts of the people rather than sympathy.

Indeed, Charles. Don't post anything you don't have enough information about. Don't post things purely to stir up hatred. Got that?

(hat tip SK)

David Corn vs. Paris Hilton's jugs

David Corn has defended his decision to join PJM by.......attacking James Wolcott.

In the meantime, I look forward to a new Internet enterprise that seeks to promote varying views, even if the idea came from conservatives. And if James Wolcott, whose work I admire and respect, can bring himself to be associated with a magazine (which I admire and respect) that makes mucho bucks by placing Paris Hilton's jugs in front of our mugs, perhaps I can see if being associated with rightwingers will benefit this blog, my work, and my readers. If not, I'll be happy to chuck it all for a column at Vanity Fair. James, thanks for the vote of confidence.

So basically, Vanity Fair's coverage of Paris Hilton's jugs is equivalent to rabid Bush worship and Republican propaganda in Mr Corn's eyes. How the mighty have fallen.

OUT OF TOUCH?

WASHINGTON - In a day of political drama, Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.

CHARLES: "it’s a good thing when the Democratic Party demonstrates to the nation how radicalized and out of touch they have become"

WHO'S OUT OF TOUCH?

"Do you think the Bush Administration deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, or not?"

10/28-30/05
YES 53% NO 45% UNSURE 2%

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. Oct. 28-30, 2005. N=800 adults nationwide. MoE ± 4.
http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm

Journalism vs Blogging

For Charles Johnson, 'news' consists of plucking a statistic out of a press release and telling the world that he's shocked! shocked! at the depravity of French Muslims (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18069).

For Charles Johnson, 'news' consists of repeating an item he read on the MSM and pointing out that his arch-enemy blog has said something on the topic too (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18064).

For Charles Johnson, 'news' consists of screaming about the perfidity of French (!) journalists (!) because he doesn't agree with something they've written (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18062).

And this twerp claims to be leading the vanguard of a media revolution that will sweep aside what remains of the corrupt and incompetent mainstream media? Give me good old mainstream journalism any day.