LGF's Cognitive Dissonance

Reader LT suggested the following lines be nominated for the Charles Johnson Award for Most Idiotic News Analysis of the Year:

"I thought I was finished being surprised by the depth of our media’s corruption.

'The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks claimed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Opponents of President Bush have criticized him for raising the attacks as a justification for the protracted fight in Iraq.'

Yet the media feels no compunction about tying these two completely unrelated numbers together, as justification for their relentless self-loathing suicidal pacifist propaganda. They’ve really crossed a line this time."

So is Charles effectively saying the War in Iraq has nothing to do with the War on Terror? That's funny, because we were pretty certain it was precisely this link he was trying desperately to forge not so long ago...

One death is news...

While the world focused on the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at least 72 people - including 6 U.S. soldiers - were killed by the ongoing violence.

So much for a new chapter!

LGF: Dirty, dirty Muslims

In another lame attempt to portray Muslims as filthy untermenschen spreading disease throughout the West, Charles Johnson stoops to the gutter yet again and picks up a piece from the Sun to declare "Muslims Refuse to Wash Hands at UK Hospitals".

Apparently, some Muslims are reluctant to rub themselves with a substance that has 'alcohol' written all over it.

Problem is, this is a known issue. In fact, it's an issue that is being successfully dealt with. If Charlie-boy had bothered to so much as do a google search, he would have discovered that in Saudi Arabia of all places the alcohol-based hand-wash is widely used. And it has been sanctioned by religious scholars.

Sure, you'll find a few people who are still too scared or ignorant to use it. And you'll always find an idiot (like the Sun did) who says that 'water and soap' is a perfectly adequate substitute (it isn't).

But you'll find problems like this with people from all kinds of backgrounds, religions, races and beliefs. Only Charles Johnson would be so stupid as to single out Muslims, though.

Charles Johnson for Idiot of the Year?

It looks like Charles Johnson might have another fauxtography scandal on his hands: the folks at Crooks & Liars are questioning his claims about a picture he recently posted allegedly showing John Kerry in Iraq. Read more...

(hat tip anon)

MORE LGF HYSTERIA

Charles Johnson (LGF) is beating the war drum again:

What will it take for the United States to acknowledge that Iran is openly at war with us, and has been for decades?

What will it take for Charles to acknowledge that U.S. relations with Iran are much more complicated than he realizes? Perhaps he has forgotten the long-standing hostility between Iran and the Taliban ¹ and the help given to the U.S. by Iran during the Afghanistan war².

NOTE:SOURCES ALL COME FROM LEXIS-NEXIS SEARCHES

¹
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, September 30, 2001, Sunday, BC Cycle
10:14 Central European Time
The Iranian stance and that of the daily is very clear and Teheran has right from the beginning (1996) not acknowledged the Taliban group due to its orthodox interpretation of Islam and due to the massacre of Iranian diplomats, the daily said.

Iran was on the verge of a war with the Taliban after the groups agents massacred in 1998 eleven Iranian diplomats and one reporter of the state-run news agency IRNA in the northern Afghan town of Mazare Sharif.

Iran supports ousted President Burhaneddin Rabbani who is close to the main Taliban-opposition known as the Northern Alliance which controls over ten per cent of Afghanistan.

The Independent (London)
October 5, 1996, Saturday

An Iranian cleric has accused Afghanistan's radical Islamic Taliban movement of giving Islam a bad name. "They stop girls from attending school, stop women from working . . . in the name of Islam," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers in Tehran. Shia Iran supported the ousted government of Burhanuddin Rabbani and is hostile to Sunni Taliban.


The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
September 12, 1998 Saturday Final Edition

Taliban troops were reported to be 16 kilometres from the town of Bamiyan, where some 300,000 Hazaras from neighbouring villages have taken shelter to escape being massacred. The Taliban massacred thousands of Hazaras when they captured Mazar-e-Sharif.

The Hazaras, a Mongol people, are Shia Muslims and intensely disliked by the Taliban -- who are Sunni Muslims and drawn from another ethnic group, the Pashtuns. Iranian planes have been flying supplies to the besieged Hazaras, who have been backed by Iran for four years in their resistance to the Taliban.



²

The Boston Globe
December 31, 2001, Monday ,THIRD EDITION

Then came Sept. 11. And, within days, President Bush made one of the most important decisions of the war on terrorism, throwing his lot with the ragtag Northern Alliance and pressuring Pakistan to desert its Taliban clients.

To help arm the alliance, the Bush administration made a previously unthinkable deal, intelligence sources said: It agreed to finance a Russian transfer of arms to the alliance fighters. At about the same time, the United States started getting valuable intelligence from a longtime adversary, Iran.

The United States was desperately short of on-the-ground intelligence in Afghanistan. So, in addition to Pakistan, the United States turned to an unlikely partner, Iran. For many years, Iran had been an archenemy of the United States, having taken American embassy workers hostage two decades ago and encouraged anti-American sentiment. But the relationship had improved slightly in recent years, and Iran had long supported the Northern Alliance.

"This was clearly a case where Iranians had an interest in Afghanistan," said Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's former counterterrorism chief. "They hated the Taliban. We got information from the Iranians. They did it very quietly."

Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Copyright 2002 BBC Monitoring/BBC
BBC Monitoring International Reports January 28, 2002
Text of article by Mehdi Razavi published by Iranian newspaper Azad on 13 January

Over the past two decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran not only paid the heavy expenses imposed by the presence of defenceless Afghan immigrants, but also dedicated more than 3,000 martyrs in the course of fighting narcotic drugs. Moreover, Iran was in apparent and deep conflict with the Taleban from the very outset. Indeed, more than any other country, it was exposed to the reactionary enmity of the Taleban group. Perhaps, in a way, the Islamic Republic of Iran was the real enemy of the Taleban.

Following the 11 September attack, America actually carried out a parallel operation with the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Taleban.

What's 100 dead a day compared to 1 rogue policeman?

Guys, guys, guys, are you still obsessing about Mr Hussein? No, not the Iraqi ex-dictator you seem to have forgotten about for now. That Iraqi police officer who has been speaking to the foreign media without permission, saying things you don't like.

Do you really think that, even if the guy is found out to have jihadi sympathies (or be a sergeant, not a captain), this is somehow going to change a single thing about the situation in Iraq, the quagmire YOU helped get us into?

Guys, haven't you heard there's a WAR going on? Are you going to keep jerking off to your inconsequential Hussein story or get real?

Labels

As you may have noticed, with the last post 'labels' have been introduced. We think that this is Google/Blogger's term for 'tags', so we'll be using them as such. Hopefully we'll get round to backtagging all of our old post sometime too. Any volunteers or suggestions?

Discrimination Jerusalem style

Someone sent us this link using some newfangled thing called 'Digg'. We thought we'd share it with you: 'Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat'

The real Fiasco

It's odd that warbloggers have expended an enormous amount of time and energy trying to pick apart a single source from a single, relatively brief AP dispatch, arguing that the misleading information in that article somehow calls into question all of the Iraq reporting, yet warbloggers have been relatively silent about the recent string of book-length critiques of the war. I'm thinking in particular about Thomas Ricks' excellent book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Penguin Press, July 2006), which, in its first 100 pages, tells readers all they need to know about the botched war. Warbloggers either don't read books, or are so completely overwhelmed by the definitive evidence produced in a book like Fiasco, which relies heavily on sources from within the U.S. military to paint its convincing picture of Bush administration incompetence, that warbloggers simply have no choice but to turn away and focus their attention on evil AP stringers. (link)

All the lies that's fit to print

Move over Amir Taheri, there's a new kid on the 'making stuff up about Iran' block!

The Press Complaints Commission have launched an investigation following the submission of a report today detailing a catalogue of innaccurate and misleading stories about Iran by Daily Telegraph political editor, Con Coughlin. The report, put together by Campaign Iran, reveals that Mr Coughlin, the man who ‘broke the story’ of Iraq’s 45 minute WMD capacity, is behind sixteen articles containing unsubstantiated allegations against Iran over the past twelve months. The PCC will examine whether the stories, all based on unnamed or untraceable sources, are in breach of Clause 1 of their Code of Practice, requiring accuracy.

The veracity of Coughlin’s writing on Iran is already under investigation by the PCC following complaints about a headline article in last month’s Telegraph that claimed that Iran was “grooming Bin Laden’s successor”. The story, universally dismissed by Middle East experts, led the organisation Campaign Iran to conduct a broader analysis of the accuracy of Mr Coughlin’s stories and the journalistic methods he uses.

Analysing 44 articles by Mr Coughlin on Iran, the report finds some stark patterns in terms of his journalistic technique:

• Sources are unnamed or untraceable, often “senior Western intelligence officials” or “senior Foreign Office officials”.
• Articles are published at sensitive and delicate times where there has been a relatively positive diplomatic moves towards Iran.
• Articles contain exclusive revelations about Iran combined with eye-catchingly controversial headlines;
• The story upon which the headline is based does not usually exceed one line or at the most one paragraph. The rest of the article focuses on other, often unrelated, information.

The report also reveals that Coughlin has a history of breaking politically important stories that are later shown to be inaccurate. He is the journalist who, discovered “the fact” that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. He was also the journalist who, in 2003, unearthed “the link” between the 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Ata, and the Iraqi intelligence.

Professor Abbas Edalat of Campaign Iran said today:

“The quoting of unnamed sources has always been an essential aspect of news reporting, but Coughlin is abusing the practice in order to give substance otherwise implausible political stories. These stories are repeated as fact on news outlets and websites across the world. They cannot be easily challenged because the unnamed source can never be revealed. During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq Coughlin was behind two very influential stories that helped pave the path to war. Both were later found to be completely untrue. We must be vigilant against similar inaccuracies being used to prepare the path for intervention against Iran, and we call on the PCC to take action against Coughlin and to safeguard the integrity and accuracy of our press.”


The report, ‘Conning the Nation: An Analysis of Con Coughlin’s Reportage on Iran’ has been compiled by Campaign Iran, based on research led by Dr Majid Tafreshi.

For more information visit www.campaigniran.org.uk
Contact: Professor Edalat on 0207 2292375
Press Office: 0797163005 or 07799650791

Appendix 1

Sources used by Coughlin’s for his articles published in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph within the last one year.

10/10/2006: “The West woke up too late to the nuclear threat of rogue states” Source: none.
04/08/2006: “Teheran fund pays war compensation to Hizbollah families”
Source: “A senior security official”.
21/07/2006: “Meanwhile, Iran gets on with its bomb”
Source: none.
14/07/2006: “Israeli crisis is a smoke screen for Iran's nuclear ambitions”
Source: none.
13/07/2006: “Cat and mouse games on border that is 'our front line with Iran’” Source: An Israeli soldier.
12/06/2006: “Iran accused of hiding secret nuclear weapons site”
Source: A senior western diplomat”
11/04/2006: “The West can't let Iran have the bomb”
Source: “An official closely involved in the IAEA's negotiations with Iran”
07/04/2006: “Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads”
Source: “A senior US official”
07/04/2006: “UN officials find evidence of secret uranium enrichment plant”
Sources: “A diplomat closely involved in the IAEA's negotiations with Teheran” and “A senior diplomat attached to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna”.
04/04/2006: “Iran's spies watching us, says Israel”
Sources: “A senior Israeli military commander” and “an officer with Israel's northern command”.
06/03/2006: “Teheran park 'cleansed' of traces from nuclear site”
Source: “A senior western official”
11/02/2006: “Iran plant has restarted its nuclear bomb-making equipment”
Source: “A senior Western intelligence official”
30/01/2006: “Iran sets up secret team to infiltrate UN nuclear watchdog, say officials” Source: “a senior western intelligence official”
16/01/2006: “Iran could go nuclear within three years”
Sources: “A senior western intelligence officer” and “an intelligence official”
27/11/2005: “Teheran secretly trains Chechens to fight in Russia”
Source: “a senior intelligence official”
29/10/2005: “Smuggling route [from Iran] opened to supply Iraqi insurgents”
Source: “The National Council of Resistance of Iran”

What next Con? Badges for Jews? Sorry, you've been beaten to that one but I'm sure you'll make up something else.

Source: UK Indymedia

No fly

Religious fanatics make unreasonable demands, blackmail airline. Charles Johnson yawns.

Charles Johnson is a racist, #1,243

A man is arrested for allegedly plotting an armed attack in Chicago, and Charles gives it his full attention: 2 posts and 7 updates.

A man fatally shoots 3 people and is then killed by police snipers in Chicago and Charles ignores it. Because actual, everyday mayhem and murder doesn't interest Charles Johnson. Sure, innocents suffer, communities are shaken, people are terrorized. But somehow, because even Charles can't link these stories to Israel or the War on Terror, they're not worth mentioning.

If on the other hand some nutjob mouths off about wanting to kill people, and he happens to be Muslim , Charles is all eyes, ears and frothing mouth for the story.

Some people might call it focus, we call it naked racism and stupidity.

Mark Steyn: Not doing much to improve the situation

Middle-aged men like slapping each other on the back, telling themselves how great they are, and today it's Mark Steyn's turn to get a pat from Charlie in LA.

The entirety of CJ's recommendation reads: "Steyn on the Iraq Study Group and the AP. Must-see TV: Video: Steyn slams the AP and Iraq Study Group on O’Reilly."

Anyone clicking through to watch the clip will find that Steyn doesn't in fact say anything meaningful about what journalists do in Iraq that hasn't already been screeched by one right-wing pundit or another, and as for his comments on the Iraq Study Group, he bascially admits that they are the conclusions "any semi-well informed person" would reach "plus several really bad ideas" and he somehow doesn't find the time to explain why they are "really bad".

Then he accuses journalists of being "hunkered down in the Green Zone" (a word nobody in Iraq uses) but lambasts them for reporting on the atrocities happening outside of it. Eh?!?

According to Steyn, who has probably never been to Iraq himself, "most of" the schools and hospitals in the country are open, but he conveniently fails to mention that parents aren't sending their kids to school anymore and that people are getting murdered in the hospitals.

Of course, we shouldn't expect too much from a man who, a few weeks after the invasion in 2003, wrote:

"Isolated atrocities will continue to happen in the days ahead, as dwindling numbers of the more depraved Ba'athists confront the totality of their irrelevance. But these are the death throes: the regime was decapitated two weeks ago, and what we've witnessed is the last random thrashing of the snake's body."

He then went on to praise the "genius" of Donald Rumsfeld.

Well, Mr Steyn, how about coming up with some "genius" ideas for how to get America out of this QUAGMIRE you helped push it into?

That Iraq Report

Has anyone noticed that Charles Johnson cannot mention the Iraq report without immediately diverting the topic to his pet hate (Palestinians)?

As we've noted before, Charles Johnson has a problem with mentioning anything to do with Iraq that might sour his readers' milk.

Charles Johnson the hypocrite #497

Ironic or what? Charles Johnson, the man who accuses the mainstream media of manipulating the news, puts blatant spin and distortion on the words of Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

We're no fans of the loony mullahs, but tell us if you spot the words "convert to Islam or die" in this article. Sure, there's room for interpretation, but it remains just that, doesn't it? Interpretation - the one thing wingnuts bloggers will lambast the media for doing, but have no qualms at all about peppering their own posts with...

LGF: Remote-controlled by the Lincoln Group?

LGF's confused and patchy reporting of various incidents in Iraq, fiery in its certainty but lacking in any hard, on-the-ground reporting, has given rise to certain suspicions among our readers. Chiefly, the allegation is that LGF, and its bed-fellows at MichelleMalkin.com, Powerline, JihadWatch and surrago-blogs such as Flopping Aces, are being used by a Washington lobbying company to attack the negative news coming out of Iraq.

The company in question is Lincoln Group, which has a multi-million dollar contract with the U.S. military to engineer positive stories about what the U.S. is achieving in Iraq.

If you think it's far-fetched to draw a link between LGF and Lincoln Group, remember that Charles Johnson has signed up with another governmental infowar outfit, GIYUS.

To find out more about Lincoln Group, read Billmon's account of them here. Then take a look at Sourcewatch, Wikipedia, Govexec, and Corpwatch.

Then ask yourself: Would the White House stoop to such amateurish practices as to try to create fake but (Bush) friendly news? It would.

Admitting defeat?

Was Charles stung by our last post that he has a utopian _ and utterly misinformed _ view of what is going on in Iraq? Today, for the first time in ages, he tacitly admits that America's crusade there has been a failure.

LGF: Getting the news out of its own arse

Well, well, well, looks like Charles is about to launch himself headfirst into another Qanaa fiasco (remember the massacre of Lebanese civilians Charles claimed had been 'staged', but which turned out _ inconveniently for him and the victims _ to have actually taken place?).

This time Charles focuses his eagle eyes tens of thousands of miles across the Atlantic onto a 'fake' Iraqi police officer, one Jamil Hussein (Arabs in the audience will be laughing now at the assertion that there is "no Jamil Hussein in the Baghdad police").

While we wait and see how this story developes, it's important to remember what the purpose of Charles' and Co's latest little campaign is: they want to discredit anyone who calls the situation in Iraq a civil war.

So they attack one blurry incident, using the combined might of Google and an allied Command Center that has spent the last 4 years unsuccessfully coming to grips with an insurgency/civil war in Iraq. Way. To. Go.

Just keep one thing in mind when you read LGF over the next few days: this is the blog that regularly ignores the mass killing of Iraqis by Iraqis (see 160 killed last week, which got not one word on LGf); the blog that doesn't deem it worth mentioning when US soldiers are found guilty of rape and murder in Iraq; and the blog that has kept stumm on the fact that Washington's man in Iraq is turning to ... the anti-Christ in Tehran for help because America has failed him.

Then ask yourself: who are you more prepared to trust when it comes to news from Iraq: Charles Johnson, whose primary source of information seems to be his morning stool, or journalists with years of experience working in the country?

What planet do LGF'ers live on?

I'm not sure it's planet earth.

Look at the thread of comments following the Paris Saint German vs. Hapoel Tel Aviv match (in which a far-right mob of soccer hooligans went on the rampage). Nuclear Cop in the comments points to these particularly moronic statements.

#12 crash_test_dhimmi 11/24/2006 08:54AM PST

the Jews are the canary in the mine in eurabia. how many of the mob were of "north african" decent? was this a friday night attack? after mosque let out?

Given the pro-Le Pen chants, none. I also like how crash_test_dhimmi doesn't know what day it is. Says it all.

#38 jimmyk 11/24/2006 09:07AM PST

Hmm, any chance the rioters might have been, um, you know, people of a religion and ethnicity that may not be named in newspaper reports?

(For what it's worth, I believe Marseille has a lot of "immigrants" of the above unmentionable ethnicity and religion.)

If this guy read said newspaper reports, you'd know there was no chance.

P.S., Paris Saint Germain play their games 500 miles away from Marseille. A long way to travel for even the most dedicated Jaw-bashed Mohammedan. It would be a touching nationalist gesture for Marseille fans to travel all the way to Paris in order to assault opposing fans of their rival team, PSG, during a European fixture.

I'm sure it's comforting for the white, anti-semitic, anti-Muslim neo-nazi football hooligans of Europe that no matter what they do, certain bigots will always blame the Muslims. Even when a group of dedicated neo-Nazi thugs chant 'French for the French', 'Dirty Nigger' and 'Dirty Jew' it seems the LGF'ers are convinced they're Muslims. Here's a video from the group allegedly behind the attack on the Hapoel supporter (apologies for the language, neo-Nazi morons and horrible Euro hardcore)..

HOOLIGANS PARIS



If you spot any Olympique Marseille supporting Muslims please drop us a line.

The plot thickens

The company behind GIYUS, a piece of software that 'pushes' Israeli PR to web users in order to get them to lobby mainstream media and politicians on the country's behalf, explicitly uses Charles Johnson's "fauxtography" incident as an example of successful use of the software.

Remember, the fauxtography 'scandal' centres around a picture of Beirut under fire which the wingnuts claim was an anti-Israeli propaganda attempt on the part of a major news organization. In fact, it was one photographer's badly touched up image which added nothing whatsoever to the horrors of the war. The incident was nothing but a smokescreen (no pun intended) to distract from pictures of dead and dying civilians that were causing immense damage to Israel's information control policy.

Expect to see this propaganda tool used a lot more in future, and Charles Johnson to be at the forefront of disseminating the 'news and views' coming out of Tel Aviv.

Is Charles Johnson part of a gov't propaganda network?

For the first time solid proof is emerging that certain sections of the right-wing blogosphere are taking direct instructions from a government (in this case Israel's) PR department to disseminate propaganda. And Little Green Footballs is slap bang in the middle of this story:

...

"During the [recent Lebanon] war we had the opportunity to do some very nice things with the megaphone community," [Israeli gov't PR man Amir Gissin] revealed at the conference. Among them, he claimed, was a role in getting an admission from Reuters that a photograph of damage to Beirut had been doctored by a Lebanese photographer to increase the amount of smoke in the picture. This was first spotted by American blogger Charles Johnson, who has won an award for "promoting Israel and Zionism".

To check out the power of the megaphone, I logged onto a website called GIYUS (Give Israel Your United Support) last Wednesday afternoon. More than 25,000 registered users of www.giyus.org have downloaded the megaphone software, which enables them to receive alerts asking them to get active online.

It did not take long for an alert to come through. A Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, had issued a press statement condemning that day's Palestinian rocket attack which killed an elderly Israeli and wounded other civilians. GIYUS wanted site users to "show your appreciation of the UK's response".

...(more)

UPDATE: 'The Nether World' has 10 useful tips for dealing with GIYUS

Vandalised memories

Charles Johnson posted an item about how one war memorial to the British armed forces had been vandalised (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=23315) but didn't see fit to write about another instance of desecration. Coincindence? See if you can spot the difference between the two stories.

(hat tip TM)

CJ: Stating the bleeding obvious

For some reason that eludes us, Charles Johnson has been making a lot lately of the fact that people in Muslim countries were happy that Bush's Republicans lost the midterm elections.

Well here's news for you Charlie: More than fifty percent of America and probably an even greater proportion of the rest of the world was happy too. In case you hadn't noticed, it was Bush's party who launched two offensives wars, snatched innocents of the streets of European cities, made Big Brother a cabinet member in all our governments and refused to act on pressing issues such as climate change until just recently.

Why the fuck shouldn't we celebrate? Hell, saying you can't celebrate a Bush defeat is like saying you can't be happy about the fall of the Iron Curtain. Only a truly twisted mind could not recognize that these are good things.

Similarly, what's with the surprise about Arab countries' anger at the US veto of the SC condemnation of Israel's attack in Gaza? Do you expect Arab countries to be happy about the murder of 18 innocents in their sleep? What kind of perverted lunatic are you?

Losers AND cheaters

Seems like Republicans were up to their old tricks again in Florida.

Bush's Legacy

We missed this when it came out, but the sentiment will continue to ring true:



Remember, Iraq war and the chaos it has spawned will be Bush's lasting legacy to the world.

Laughing so hard, I can't be bothered to title this.....

The party of anger and appeasement gets to work; they’ve got a Nutroots base that needs to be repaid for its support: The impeachment drumbeat begins.

Charles F. Johnson (Republican Hack)

Get ready for the meltdown!

If you thought the 'Lizards' took the news of humiliating defeat in the mid-term elections badly, they're going to need counselling and suicide hotlines to deal with this!!

New York -- NewsMax has learned that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton will likely leave his post next month.

After a rocky series of Senate confirmation hearings, Bolton was sent to the U.N. by President Bush in August 2005 under a recess appointment. That allowed the president to bypass Senate confirmation while it was in recess, but the appointee could only serve for the length of the current Congress which is set to expire at year's end.

There had been indications that Bolton might win Senate confirmation after the election when several key votes might be open to favoring Bolton. But the GOP's apparent loss of the Senate has doomed that hope.

"This nomination is dead and we have known it for several days," a source close to the U.S. mission to the U.N. tells NewsMax.

Source: NewsMax

UPDATE: James Wolcott points and laughs at the meltdown at Pam's place. Worth a laugh.

When dead children aren't news.....

It seems Charles Johnsons is angry. Angry that the news that the Israeli's have brutally murdered women and children (see below) has trumped the news that his Republican party have taken a hammering (see everywhere).

At the public relations wing of the global jihad, Al Jazeera, there doesn’t seem to be a word yet about the US elections: Aljazeera.Net English - Home Page.

LGF reader ratherdashing posted a comment earlier that their Arabic web site was running a photo of Nancy Pelosi, but as I write this there’s a big picture of dead, mutilated children at the top of that page.

You just can't please some bigots can you?

Source: Nuclear Cop in the comments

Lizards jumping ship?

Even a lizardoid knows a loser when he sees one. Take a look at these comments, unthinkable just a week ago:

"Bush seems like a beaten wife to me now." (Black George Bush)

"He sounds that way too." (cheesehead)

"Bush is a worn out leader... It is over... "(tfc3rid)

"Bush is done. I've given up on him. Time for conservatives to take the party over. The White House is inept." (Junior)

"Bush has surrendered." (J.Lichty)

"I’m listening to the press conference, Bush is really sounding like a complete moron. {:-( " (Da_Beerfreak)

"I said six months ago that Bush would be the ruin of the conservative movement as it currently stands" (Eric Cartman's Conscience)

"My wife has always said Bush is nothing but a yankee carpet bagger." (AMERICAN)

"Bush is really starting to look more and more like a sell out." (galloping granny)

"Whatever support I had for Bush and the rest of these fools just went down the toilet." (SouthernFriedChickenHawk)

"Bush's performance today was nothing short of abject surrender" (Spiny Norman)

"P.S. Jeb Bush, don't even think of running for President." (Asylum Aleikum)

And to cap it all, Charles too has started insulting the commander-in-chief as "a clown, probably with deep psychological issues around male parental figures".

This, more than the elections themselves, signals the end of the Bush era. Even the die-hards have had enough. Question now is, who are they going to turn to? Who can be their saviour in this dark hour?

Spot the wanker

In the true spirit of freedom and democracy....

They’ll be celebrating in Gaza tomorrow.

Charles Johnson on hearing that a Muslim American has become a congressman.

Since the Israeli "redeployment" from Gaza on August 20, 2005, Israeli
occupation troops killed 694 Palestinians and wounded four thousand.

Something tells me the people of Gaza have very little to celebrate.

UPDATE:

Something tells me the people burying these innocent women and children won't give a damn about the US midterms and certainly won't be celebrating anything.

Israel Defense Forces artillery shells struck a residential area in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun early Wednesday, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others.

Ten children and seven women were among the dead, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, adding that 18 of the victims were members of the Athamna family.

Khaled Radi, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said all of those killed were civilians. According to witnesses, the victims were sleeping when the 15-minute barrage of shells first hit. Radi also said at least 40 people were wounded, all civilians.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed regret for the deaths, saying that Israel did not set out to harm innocent civilians.

The IDF confirmed that an artillery battery containing 12 shells had aimed at a site from where Qassam rockets were fired at the southern city Ashkelon on Tuesday. The artillery fire had been intended for a location about half a kilometer from the Beit Hanun houses.

Source: Haaretz

UPDATE:

And today we have a rash of reports from the Middle East showing that my “bigoted, racist” prediction was right on the money. The Arab Street is greatly pleased with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and so are their despotic rulers and jihad-enabling media

Charles is now saying 'I was right!' although obviousy he isn't. "They'll be celebrating in Gaza tomorrow" isn't the same as "The Arab world will welcome a change of government in the US is it?" and anyway you made the comment in response to a Muslim becoming a senator not the appointment of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. You're still a shrill racist bigot Charles and considering the carnage the Israelis carried out in Gaza recently (that you're still to mention or justify) your comment will haunt you.

And what gives Charles? You were complaining the Arab media wasn't covering the US midterms, now you're complaining they are? Jeez, make your mind up!

Unleash Zyklon-B on Muslims!

The 'Lizards' sure don't like losing....

#272 Greg 11/7/2006 10:43PM PST

Bush is losing precisely because he has took the high road after 9/11 instead of Zyclon B-ing most of the muslim world after attacking our shores as they have been doing to our shipping since 1800.

This is a world war and not a tea party for the Yale/Harvard clique...

Islam must have a boot smashing into its face forever until it becomes a grown up religion not bent on murdering everyone on the planet...

Bush cannot comprehend this or the Donks even less...they do not have the intestinal fortitude for it...

The next attack after we lose a million (since each attack seems to square or cube the casualty rate), nothing will stop the rage in the streets.....

The word 'moron' seem too polite.

Is Charles a terrorist supporter?

What does this mean? That Charles trusts terror supporters? That Charles supports terrorists? That Charles is prepared to rely on CNN when it suits him, but not when it doesn't? That Charles is an ignorant opportunist? Come on CJ, explain this one to us:



Meanwhile, while the evil MSM gives over its front page to the elections, Israel is taking the opportunity to kill people in their sleep. It helps that no-one's watching.

Too little, too late...

...but better than nothing at all.

Considering that it has been decades since the incumbent president's party did not lose control of Congress during the last two years of his eight year term, this apparent victory for the Democrats is nothing more than natural correction. It doesn't, unfortunately, signal that America has seen through the evil machinations of the Bush regime.

But that will come.

Meanwhile, the fire Bush lit continues to spread.

Targeting the Red Cross

Remember that incident during the Lebanon-Israel war which Charles got so excited about, in which he claimed that Red Cross workers had blown up their own ambulance and blamed Israel?

Presumably Charles is going to say the same thing happened here...

The international Red Cross on Sunday deplored the killing by the Israel Defense Forces of two "clearly marked" ambulance workers removing a Palestinian body from an earlier Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip.

The paramedics of the Palestine Red Crescent Society were wearing clearly marked fluorescent jackets and the flashing lights of their ambulance were visible from a great distance when they were hit by Israeli fire after dark on Friday evening, said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"The International Committee of the Red Cross is appalled by this failure to protect personnel engaged in emergency medical duties," a statement said. (Haaeretz)

An inconvenient truth

The United States has now been at war in Iraq longer than it was at war against Hitler during World War II. Fact.

This is obviously what George W Bush meant when he said "mission accomplished":



PS: Charles recently linked approvingly to a 'satire' about World War II, in which the 'absurd' suggestion is made that a press such as America has today would have "criticized us for going to war with two nations that had never attacked us, Germany and Italy."

In fact, anyone with a bit of historical knowledge (i.e. not Charles) would know that the US did just that during World War II: it happily waited for Japan and Germany to make the first move against it before entering the war.

Why? Perhaps it had something to do with the US (and George W Bush's grandaddy) having plenty of financial interests in Nazi Germany...

Riot coverage

Remember when Charles Johnson blasted the media for 'not covering the riots in France' (i.e. they were covering them, but not enough for CJ's liking)?

Well, let's see how much coverage this story of religiously inspired urban violence gets on Little Green Footballs:

Ultra-Orthodox Jews have rioted in Jerusalem nearly every night over the past week, burning garbage cans, blocking roads and assaulting police officers in an attempt to get the authorities to call off the [gay pride] march, approved months ago by the Supreme Court. (CNN)

(hat tip BR)

Premonitions?

Charles is preparing his readers for a "debacle" at the upcoming mid-term elections. But then he quickly catches himself and has another go at that minority of Americans "who might still be Democrats". We'll see how many people are Democrats and how many are Republicans soon, won't we?

Inspired by LGF?

Is it unreasonable to think that the below incident might have been inspired, at least in part, by the racist ideas spread by Charles Johnson and his minions at LGF, where the term Koranimal is a synonym for Muslim?

Five Jewish teenagers have been charged with hate crimes for attacking a Pakistani-American man with brass knuckles in the Midwood section of Brooklyn and calling him a "terrorist," officials said.

Shahid Amber, 24, said in an interview last night he was eating ice cream near a Dunkin' Donuts at the corner of East 15th Street and Avenue M, when he was approached by a group of five teenagers at about 8:15 p.m. on October 29. They knocked the ice cream from his hands, called him a "terrorist" and told him: "Go back to your country," he said...(NY Sun)

(hat tip AM)

We're Not Buying it.....

I’m not going to get into a knockdown mud rassle with Allahpundit about it (or with Mr. Genial, for that matter), but I’m with Ace on this one. I just don’t buy John F. Kerry’s excuses, and I’m skeptical of—no, I scoff at, in fact, I mock—the claims that he deviated from a prepared speech. It just doesn’t pass the giggle test, after watching him deliver those lines.

Two words: Occam’s Razor.

Two words for you Chuckles: Republican shill

Source: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=23200_Not_Buying_It&only

Nuclear Nonsense

And this guy calls himself anti-idiotarian?

It's common knowledge that in 1991, Iraq had the potential to develop nuclear weapons within a year. It's not certain he would have managed if coalition forces hadn't invaded Kuwait, but it's possible. The Gulf War put and end to that plan though, and the subsequent arms embargo ensured he couldn't revive the program. (See Iraq Survey Group report)

Yet by some fantastic twist of logic, Charles Johnson manages not only to misread, but to misinterpret a NYTimes article and earnestly ask: "Is the New York Times actually conceding that Saddam was just a year away from having a nuclear weapon in 2002?"

Hey Charles, why don't you stick to the Beano instead?

The real Iraq

Can anyone see the irony in Charles Johnson, a man who wouldn't know what a war zone looked like if he stumbled into one, criticizing John Kerry, somebody who has seen combat at first hand, for calling him and his like 'chickenhawks'?

Well, while Charles continues to mock those who have actually fought for their country (and by extension, all those who have fallen in vain for George W Bush's campaign in Iraq), here's a picture you won't see on LGF anytime soon:

Kerry: "Bush&Co didn't do their homework on Iraq" ; Johnson: "Kerry hates soldiers"

Charles Johnson is falling right into step today with the latest march against reason, this time issuing covert RNC press releases against John Kerry, a man who speaks his mind about what is going on in Iraq and won't be cowed into apologizing for his honesty by the wingnut-o-sphere.

Of course, if Kerry hadn't mentioned Iraq yesterday, neither would Charles. Because the I-word is dangerous for people like Charles, who won't take responsibility for supporting an administration that has time and again taken America down the wrong path.

Charles will never mention that over 100 American soldiers fell in Iraq over the past month.

Charles will never mention that the US troops are being humiliated there on a daily basis, that feeble attempts at 'reconstruction' have all but been abandoned.

Charles will never mention that for all the money pumped into this crusade _ and we're talking somewhere close to 1 trillion dollars (that's $1,000,000,000,000) _ it has created more terrorists, than it has removed.

But Charles will mention again and again anything that can be construed as criticism of the soldiers he himself has helped send to their doom, however contrived his logic is.

As Kerry said: "This is a textbook Republican campaign policy - try to change the topic." It may work on some voters. But what it doesn't work for is America. Every vote for the current administration is a vote against America's standing in the world; a vote against being able to pay for sensible education, housing and health policies at home; a vote for corporate greed and political corruption, for idiocy and blind faith.

Only a small minority of arms peddlers, spin-meisters, hate-mongers are profiting out of the fisco that is America in the 21st century. Millions more are suffering. Think about that, Charles, when you cash that check from Karl Rove. And do your homework.

Dumb, dumber, Charles Johnson

United Press of Islam

UPI is now publishing Islamic press releases directly from the terrorist state of Iran (their branch in Belgium, to be precise), including the acronym “PBUH” (Propellor Beanie Upon Him) after every reference to Mohammed

Ehm, Charles, UPI is owned by the Moonies.

Different lands, different mores

Wow, Charles Johnson really is pulling out all the stops tonight to show us how evil Islam is. This time it's a harrowing tale of an couple who were detained by immigration police for no reason, thrown into separate cells and interrogated about possible involvement in terrorist activities they had nothing to do with. They wrongly believe they were entitled to the same treatment as the local population but in actual fact there's now one law for white locals, one law for non-white locals, and quite another for non-white foreigners.


Oooops, wrong story. The above describes a daily occurance somewhere in George W. Bush's Brave New America. What Charles was complaining about was an ex-cop and his wife trying to buy a second home in a third world country getting a taste of how things are done over there. No arrest, no beatings, no extraordinary rendition, no offshore confinement, no torture. Just two humiliated Americans. Awwww diddums. Let's invade Malaysia!

Traitors in the ranks

Charles Johnson has discovered his gay-friendly side, with a post about a Manchester imam who wants all those evil homos killed. And so CJ should be outraged, because Arshad Misbahi's comments that, if killing gays "deterred millions from having sex, and spreading disease, then it was worthwhile to protect the wider community", are truly despicable.

Funnily enough they're not so different from what a certain LGF commentator called 'sss111' said a few days ago, in Charles's own back yard:

In the U.S., [HIV is] related to ideology.

The ideology that says people have the right to live like pigs, f*ck multiple partners up the rather unsanitary anus in bathhouses and use unclean needles to inject their funny drugs, because it's just a "lifestyle choice", is an example.

AIDS could have been stopped in its tracks in the US and elsewhere once the virus and transmission mode was identified. That was around 1982 or 3.

Bummer, eh Charles?

(hat tip AG)

Lies, lies, and damn surveys

So Charles has discovered the significance of surveys, at least with regard to what Muslims think. Perhaps he'd like to take a look at another survey, which might give him an insight into what THE AMERICAN people think.

Some links

Apologies for the sparse posting these days. Real life seems more important than some Californian chickenhawk at the moment...

Still, here are some links that have come our way lately:

Abdiel highlights the problem of wingnuts posting about stuff they don't understand.

Reader TN tells us of a murder you won't see mentioned on LGF.

Reader LT points out that while Charles is happy to slam Muslims (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=23083) for slavery, he won't afford the same treatment to non-Muslims. Surprised?

And finally, the Beeb hitting back at the idiotarian right (both print and blog).

Charles Johnson Appoints Rush Limbaugh "Honorary Lizardoid". Within Hours, Rush Proves Him Right.

Titanic Deckchairs

Nice to see middle-aged white men in America can still agree with each other about who the real enemy is (yellow peril? Clinton? Who is it this time? Oh, Muslims...) and pat each other on the back while ignoring such insignificant things as, say, reality.

What you didn't read on LGF (or hear of Rush) this week:

Mayor of London told free speech in office is OK

Israelis sick of their no-good president

Bush admits: Iraq a bit like Vietnam (lets not forget that Vietnam started with a lie as well...).

Good to know these people are running the world.

Where calling for murder is acceptable

Charles Johnson is outraged that someone has been forced to pay £150 quid for hanging up an "Anti-Extremist Banner" (Johnson's words).

What was on the banner? The slogan "Kill all Muslims who threaten us and our way of life. Enoch Powell was right."

Only on LGF can that kind of thing be described as "anti-extremist".

You see, this is the site which regularly hosts such insightful, anti-extremist comments as

BRING ON WORLD WAR IV, MuslimS.

I dare ya.

...

The prosecutor and magistrate have shown themselves to be enemy agents. Publish their names, and have the "street" f*** them up.

...

There is a war coming and it will not be pretty. It will have to end the same way WWII ended - with an ideology burned to the ground and salt sown into the earth where it took root.

Do your research, Johnson!

Oh boy, does Charles Johnson even read the stuff his minions send him before he posts vitriolic nonsense on LGF?

Today the ageing Californian crypto-racist is 'repelled' by a "Muslim women" who responds "to criticism of the misogyny of radical Islam by denying there’s any repression".

Wrong target. The person CJ attacks is chick-lit author India Knight who is probably as Muslim as the Pope is a Nazi, meaning there is a tenuous connection a long way back but actions since pretty much sever the link. What's more, to take anything Ms Knight writes seriously is a pretty good indication that you can't be taken seriously yourself, because she has little grasp of logic in any medium, be it books or newspapers.

But of course it suits Charles Johnson to take her fluff column as another example of what those evil Muslims think...

Meanwhile, Johnson blithely ignores Muslims who express opinions that might challenge his view of them, such as Saira Khan who wrote in The Times a week ago why Muslim women should thank Straw.

On the radar/Off the radar

Charles Johnson has been making a lot about an incident at Columbia University this week, where an anti-immigration group meeting was stormed by protesters. Charles labels it an attempt to 'shut down free speech' - fair enough, though the logic by which anti-racist groups suddenly become "facists" still eludes us.

However another incident recently got absolutely no mention on LGF, even though it's a far more clear-cut instance of 'shutting down free speech'. Wonder why...

Damn Mexicans...

Beware the Brown Peril

A Gazan Guernica

Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam documents a horrifying new weapon being used on Palestinians.

Forget about Israel being a "light unto the nations" as the seminal early Zionist thinker Ahad HaAm used to say. Think more like Nazi Germany and the Spanish Civil War. Besides an ideological affinity between Franco's fascists and Hitler, the Fuhrer found that conflict a perfect testing ground for Germany's new weapons technology. During the Civil War, the Luftwaffe first previewed the new technique of aerial bombardment to devastating effect in places like Guernica. Hitler and Goering got to test all of their new playtoys like the Messerschmitts, Junkers, and anti-tank cannons.

It seems that Israel has been using Gazans in precisely the same way since its invasion following the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

What makes him describe the Israeli government and IDF in such a strong way? This weapon...

According to the official website of a U.S. air force laboratory, it is a "focused lethality" weapon, which aims to accurately destroy the target while causing minimum damage to the surrounding.

According to the site, the projectile comprises a carbon-fiber casing filled with tungsten powder and explosives. In the explosion, tungsten particles - a metal capable of conducting very high temperatures - spread over a radius of four meters [12 feet] and cause death.

According to the U.S.-based website Defense-Tech, "the result is an incredibly destructive blast in a small area" and "the destructive power of the mixture causes far more damage than pure explosive." It adds that "the impact of the micro-shrapnel seems to cause a similar but more powerful effect than a shockwave."

Richard finishes by asking the following questions.

If you're trying to kill a bad guy in an urban setting, does the IDF not realize that innocent bystanders will be highly likely within the 12-25 kill zone? And if the weapon provides for increased lethality within that zone might it not be possible that you would kill more, rather than less innocents by using it in the most densely packed urban environment on earth, Gaza?

We all know the answers Richard. I doubt very much you'll get them from the Israeli government or the IDF though.

UPDATE: Gavin M. at Sadly, No! takes Chuckles task over his absurd claim that a journalist writing about this in the Guardian was an anti-Semite spreading blood libel. Despite of course the story being reported in Haaretz and the existence of the weapon under discussion in various trustworthy sources. Nobody cheapens the accusation of anti-Semitism like Charles F. Johnson.

VICTOR "CREEPY" HANSON

On the outrage about chickenhawk GOPers stalking congressional pages, Charles's eminence grise, Victor Davis Hanson brays:

"...is the [Foley] nuttiness because most Americans below 30 are now so poorly educated that they don'’t know, or care to know, the difference between Pyongyang and poontang?"

Nice of Hanson to refer to the child stalkees as "poontang", an ugly pejorative, to say the least. Ol' Victor is not one to let a little decency stand in the way of some snappy alliteration (or an idiotic point). To VDH, the burgeoning foleygate multi-year coverup is a "non-story". Because, uh, he says so. Hanson segues to bash Bob Woodward and "State Of Denial" ("undocumented sourcing"), eliciting this priceless comment from a reader, surely on the cutting-edge of foaming wingnuttery:

Dr. Hanson,

You have put your finger on perhaps our single greatest constitutional problem we face in this nation....the first amendment protection that is the freedom of the Press. As the left in this country constantly hammer the supposed civil-rights violations of the Bush administration, we have a media in an ethic free-fall and a desparate need to affect public policy. The media still claim to be our, the peoples, watch-dog. But, are they "our" dog or someone elses? What good is a watch-dog if that dog belongs to another master? In this case, the master is a political philosophy, a political religion..liberalism. (ETC ETC).

These people desire nothing less than the destruction of every part of the constitution. This is the discourse hosted by Charles Johnson and Roger L Simon on Pajamas Media, the mysteriously financed wurlitzer component.

Feint

Has Charles Johnson discovered his liberal side? In an off-the-cuff remark about an off-the-cuff remark (by a former top UK police chief), CJ drops this bombshell on his readers:

"...There are definitely civil liberties concerns in play; internment [ed: 'the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without due process of law and a trial.'] is very serious stuff, and we should all be concerned when it’s mentioned by government officials..."

So Charles has civil liberties concerns, does he? That does stop him shilling for Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons and the practice of the US occupying forces in Iraq to detain large numbers of men (and previously women) for months on end without charge or trial.

Now why would CJ so blatantly contradict himself? Has he had a change of heart? No, it's fairly simple: he's preparing his lizardfolk for the next stage in anti-Muslim ideology. When a major attack happens, he can now advocate internment (say, of all males between 15 and 55) while pointing this this post as a kind of alibi that shows he takes 'civil liberties' very seriously.

Charles isn't really interested in freedom. He's interested in stoking the hate.

Cut & Run Republicans

The more the war Charles doesn't want to mention rumbles on, the more Americans and Iraqis die, the more Republicans are having second thoughts about their glorious leaders crusade. Here's Sen. John Warner (Rep - Virginia), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, announcing that complete withdrawal shouldn't be taken 'off the table'.

“I assure you, in two or three months, if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it’s a responsibility of our government internally to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take? And I wouldn’t take off the table any option at this time.”

I wonder what Charles take on this will be? Or whether he will mention Iraq at all today considering there has been the greatest rise in US casualties in two years? I wonder.

Source: Antiwar.com Blog

Charles Johnson: In his own words

My tears are all dried up when it comes to the plight of the Palestinian people. I’ll save my sympathy and support for those who deserve it.

Charles Johnson: Bomb factory? What bomb factory?

Something tells me this bomb factory found in Britain isn't going to get mentioned by any of the usual suspects.

"Police officers raided a home in Lancashire on Monday night and uncovered a huge cache of chemicals used to make explosives. Officers say it is the largest haul of such chemicals ever found in this country. One man has already appeared in front of Burnley magistrates charged under the Explosives Substances Act 1883. Another man has also been charged after a raid on his house uncovered rocket launcher and a nuclear biological suit.

"You'd have thought this would be national front page news, wouldn't you? After all the hype, at last we have solid evidence of terrorists attempting to perpetrate a murderous outrage on the population – prosecutors say the pair had 'some kind of master plan'.

"Except, of course, that the men charged are not Asian Islamists, but white fascists. Robert Cottage, who has been charged for the explosives haul, stood for the BNP in Colne at the last elections."

If only the Fascist BNP had Muslims as members, Chazmo could have a field day.

Source: Lenin's Tomb

'Youths' on the rampage!

...but don't expect LGF to even mention this 3 night campaign of violence which ended in a bombing. The 'youths' in question where white and the target was a Muslim owned dairy and its staff.

A Muslim-owned dairy has been targeted by youths over three nights in a campaign of harassment culminating in a petrol bombing, a worker said. The Medina in Windsor, Berkshire, has suffered at the hands of local youths who have been targeting staff for the past three nights, the unnamed worker claimed. He said the youths would gather in gangs of up to 30 and throw stones and hurl abuse at staff working at the dairy late at night.

Police have been patrolling the area since Monday when the attacks started, he said. But on Wednesday night an attacker riding a motorbike threw a home-made petrol bomb at the dairy's perimeter wall. The worker told the Press Association that police later found a stash of the bombs hidden around the corner from the firm, which is located on an industrial estate outside the town.

It would be interesting to see what reaction this story would've had if the victims had been Christian or Jewish and the 'youths' had Muslim backgrounds.

Source: Islamophobia Watch

UPDATE: Charles has mentioned it now, announcing that 'Brits Clash with Muslims in Windsor'.....aren't British born Muslims British Charles? Do they have to be white and/or Christian to be British? Anyway, as usual Charles claims that the media are ignoring it. Which of course they aren't if he'd bothered to do a simple Google search.

LGF says: Gay sex predators bad, killing (Muslim) children OK

Reader ST points out that it's telling how Chazza feels the need to place a disclaimer underneath his posts about Mark Foley ("please note, because I know someone’s going to try this tactic: this post should in no way be construed as a 'defense' of Rep. Foley, whose actions are completely inexcusable"), but felt no such need when it came to posting wild conspiracy theories about the war in Lebanon.

Yes, that's right: Johnson didn't say one single time thruout the conflict that 'the killing of children is completely inexcusable'. Presumably that's because to his mind it is - at least as long as those children are Muslims and/or Arabs.

Charles Johnson and Mark Foley

Little Green Footballs supremo Charles Johnson, a self-declared former liberal who now cheers for the Republican party but still somehow maintains that his site is a fair and balanced take on world affairs, has a problem. That problem is called Mark Foley.

Foley, as most of the world now knows, is a US congressman alleged to have exchanged saucy emails with boys. He is also an anti-pedophile campaigner, and has thus become the Republicans' biggest liability in the run-up to the November congressional elections.

The news about Foley's actions starting leaking to the public on September 24. For a full timeline, look here. But while one of the biggest and most critical political storms gaining strength, Charles Johnson decided not to post a word about the scandal, until October 2 - a week after it first broke. And when he did, his post was an attempt to undermine Foley's accusers on the basis of a half-baked theory that retyped emails somehow invalidate originals (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22801).

Remember, we've been there before: during Charles Johnson's 15 Minutes of Fame in 2004, he successfully showed that a document about Bush's military record shown by CBS was fake. What he didn't show was that the facts presented by the document were fake.

So you would by now expect such a crusader for truth and honesty as Charles Johnson to have written more about Foley. And indeed he has! In a second post, Johnson says that Foley's "actions are completely inexcusable". He also takes a swipe - again - at Foley's accusers. And, eh, that's it.

A congressman who appears to have abused his position to fiddle with boys and mislead the public gets as much attention on LGF as an anonymous person's photoshop prank about someone most Americans have never heard of or care about (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22830).

You may think that's sick, but the truth is, it's all in a day's work for Republican standard bearer Charles Johnson, whose ideological convictions have made him blind to such minor issues as honesty and integrity in public officials. Don't believe us? Why not search for some posts about other recent Republican scandals on his site? Remember Abramoff? Remember Tom DeLay? Good luck!

One weird Charles

As one reader points out, Charles Johnson, a man who doesn't normally mince his words, chose a curious way to describe Eva Braun.



What next? Adolf Hitler was a rather strange chap?

Thai'd up in knots

Guest blogger KH writes:

A couple of weeks ago, the Thai coup provoked three posts and more than 600 comments from Johnston and his lizard foreign affairs experts. The comments displayed the searing accuracy that we have long come to expect from them. Previously the only mention of Thailand was a variety of inaccurate postings about the Muslim insurgency in the south of the country. The fact that the majority of non LGF commentators attributed the poor security situation in the south to overly vicious Thai army action was obvious appeasement to Charles and his lizard friends.

What with the general who took power in the coup being a Muslim, the lizards had to go apoplectic, and when he stated that he wanted to take a different approach to the military situation in the south (i.e. negotiating, rather than military action) you could almost hear their teeth gnashing at the thought that Muslims weren't going to get crushed by the might of the Thai army now. While one of the commentators pointed out the broader context, that Taksin, the previous PM, was corrupt, incompetent and not very popular in Thailand, he was shouted down. The thread then followed its usual course of talking about Thailand falling, predicting the inevitable imposition of Sharia Law, conversion of Buddhists, etc, etc. No-one ever seemed to notice that the Muslim population of Thailand is only 4.6%. But coming from the same people that think France (Muslim population, 5.1%) is soon to adopt Sharia Law, that's no surprise.

On October 1st, the Muslim general, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, handed over power to Surayud Chulanon, a Buddhist (and ex communist) general. Guess how many posts Charles made about that?

Links:

LGF

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22676#comments

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22642&only

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22628&only

Thai coup leaders

Wikipedia on Sonthi Boonyaratglin

Wikipedia on Surayud Chulanont

Twisted comment policy

Charles whines that he and his minions can't leave nasty comments underneath a video posted on YouTube anymore, because the person who posted it didn't want to give the rabid pack free rein and blocked comments.

Charles:

"This is how the Council on American Islamic Relations handles free speech—by shutting it down when it gets close to the truth—and it’s highly revealing to see their inability to handle criticism in a wide open forum like YouTube."

Indeed. And isn't it revealing that Charles Johnson bans people from posting critical opinions on his site, even to the point of redirecting certain IP addresses to the IDF website so they can't even read Little Green Footballs, let alone rebutt the racist claptrap that passes for discussion there?

Typical Charles Johnson

A murder on the other side of the world gets the usual Charles Johnson treatment: accusations that it's an honor killing and Islam is to blame for it all even before the dust has settled and the facts are known. Meanwhile, an incident closer to home gets...not a whisper of a mention in LGFistan:

Fatal shooting at US Amish school

Aerial shot of schoolhouse (supplied by WTXF)

Scene of shootings
A gunman has shot dead three girls and injured seven others before killing himself in an attack on an Amish school in the US state of Pennsylvania.

The gunman entered the class and ordered all the boys and some adults to leave. He then tied up the girls and began shooting them in the head.

Police named the killer as 32-year-old truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV. He is not believed to be Amish himself.

The attack is the third shooting at a US school in the past week.

In the latest shooting, the gunman lined up the girls in front of the blackboard, tying their feet using wire or plastic cuffs.

"It appears that when he began shooting these victims, the victims were shot execution style in the head," said Pennsylvania police commissioner Col Jeffrey Miller.

To Charles Johnson the logic is brutally simple: no Muslims = not noteworthy.

LGF Annan hit-job boomerangs

For whatever reasons, Charles Johnson hates Kofi Annan. Maybe it's because he regards Annan as criminally incompetent; maybe it's because he heads the evil United Nations; or maybe it's because Annan is a black man who has the gall to criticise America.

Whatever. We're not here to defend Kofi, who _ even taking into account the fact that he heads an organization limited by the willingness of its member states to act _ has made some big mistakes during his tenure.

But it is telling, isn't it, that Johnson uses classic anti-imperialist arguments to accuse Annan of having 'blood on his hands', while blithely ignoring the fact that his own much-loved president and country is guilty of much the same.

Take just one obvious example: starting an illegal war which by even the most conservative estimates has left 43,000 civilians dead so far. Does that not count as blood on Bush's hands? Apparently not. Maybe Muslim blood doesn't count where Charles Johnson is coming from....

Ouch!

It' Sunday, the day of rest and recuperation, so we won't bother you too much with Chuckie and his clownish antics. Instead, for a little light relief, take a look at what college Republicans in Ann Arbor are up to: Web site says liberals beat student GOP leader; police say no

Oh, and did anyone pick up on the story of the Republican congressman creep who has just made it a whole lot harder for Bush & Co to win the mid-terms? With allies like these...

...and then there was silence and more silence...

Chances of this being widely reported on the wingnutosphere? Zero to non-existent? One wonders what their reaction would've been if someone was killed?

An unidentified gunman fired into a mosque in western Australia packed with hundreds of Muslims observing the holy month of Ramadan, but no one was hurt, police said Saturday.

Around 400 worshippers were praying at the mosque in suburban Mirrabooka in the west coast city of Perth when the shooting occurred Friday evening, Western Australia state police Inspector Neville Patterson said.

"A single shot was fired from a high-powered rifle from outside the mosque through a window on the second level, narrowly missing a couple of worshippers," Patterson said.

The gunman, who fled the scene in a green sports utility vehicle, has yet to be identified, he said. The bullet was lodged in the mosque wall and ballistics experts were searching for more clues.

Patterson said it was unclear whether the shooting was an attempt to murder or to terrorize

Again, if this incident took place against a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue something tells me there'd be a wholly different approach to the story.

(Hat tip: Richard Silverstein)

Source: International Herald Tribune

School shooter 'not Muslim enough for me', says Charles Johnson

Little Green Footballs blogger Charles F Johnson told LGFWatch Friday that a 15-year-old student who shot dead his school's principal was "not Muslim enough for me to write about".

Johnson, of Los Angeles, California, said he had a policy of only posting about Muslims _ or at least Arabs _ who kill non-Muslims.

"This kid, Eric Hainstock, clearly isn't Arab, and as far as I know he's not Muslim enough for me to write about either", said Johnson. Asked what would make him 'Muslim enough', Johnson said a copy of the Koran found in his bedroom would do.

"That way at least I'd get to pin the irrational actions of a teenage nutcase on Islam, whatever the real reasons behind what he did. But as it is, there's no evidence he even knew what a Koran is, let alone have postes of Bin Laden hanging on his bedroom walls. It's sad really, that some guy had to die and I can't get a Muslim-bashing story out of it. Sad for me. Sad for all of us. Eurabia is coming!"

Charles Johnson is 53.

LGF turns blind eye to sex pest killers - as long as they're not Muslim

Charles Johnson knows what he likes: An American of Pakistani origin, possibly a Muslim (or possibly not), goes into a Jewish center in Seattle and shoots people at random, killing one. That deserves a post with 4 updates, and a number of follow-up posts (http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21821).

Why? Because he can blame the actions of a crazed man on his favorite target: Islam.

Charles Johnson also knows what he doesn't like: An American of Caucasian origin, possibly a Christian, goes into a school, picks out a number of 16-year-old girls, takes them hostage and sexually molests them before killing himself and one of his hostages. That doesn't deserve a mention by big boy Charles.

Why? Because he can't blame the actions of a crazed man on his favorite target: Islam.

Don't tell us Charles Johnson isn't racist.

UPDATE: The revelation that perverted killer may have stalked his victims via Myspace.com makes it even stranger that Charles chose not to comment. He went to the trouble of 'reporting' the fact a Palestinian man had talked a 16 year old into running away with him so you'd think he'd be right on this story of perversion, murder and outrage wouldn't you? Wouldn't you?

(http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21126)

The MSM error that 'got away'

Obersturmgruppenfuhrer Charles Johnson is mighty pleased that the foreign press corps in Israel has been threatened with unspecified 'action' by the GPO (who routinely censor news reports) if they let a 'doctored' photo slip through and onto the wire.

After all, wasn't it Little Green Footballs (unfortunately unmentioned in that nasty anti-Semitic lefty publication the Jerusalem Post) which uncovered the horrible campaign of manipulation waged by thousands of treacherous hacks to discredit Israel during its recent attack against Lebanon?

Wasn't it LGF which noted how a "photographer added billows of smoke and additional damage to buildings using computer-imaging technology" in a picture of Beirut?

Wasn't it....wait a minute, what additional damage? Adnan Haji added "additional damage to buildings" along with his clumsily cloned smoke? Why, even LGF didn't report that! Could it be the JPost has made a mistake? And could it be that Charlie J has let this one pass because it suits his agenda?

It could.

Riots on the streets, idiots behind keyboards

Charles picks up on the story of North African youths rioting in Belgium (I wonder why?) and manages to come up with a classic.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - About a hundred youths of North African origin rioted in central Brussels on Tuesday on a second night of trouble following the death of an inmate in jail, a police official said.
Violence broke out on Monday evening in the working class Marolles district of Brussels after news that a 25-year-old inmate of North African origin died on Sunday, the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

The inmate was given a product to help him calm down, the official said. An investigation has been launched.

On Tuesday, the youths torched a youth centre, attacked police cars and shops.

All the rioters on Tuesday were of North African origin, the official said, adding that 30 people were arrested.

....and then comments thus:

And as Snapped Shot notes, the mainstream wire services have utterly ignored the story.

Am I missing something? How can he claim the mainstream Media is ignoring something when he's cut and pasted the story directly from The Scotsman who used Reuters as a source (which is clear on the piece that is on LGF)?

But no because he read it as Snapped Shot making the assertion that the Media ignored it, then Charles F. Johnson has to jump on the old bash the MSM bandwagon, even though he's feeding off the scraps from their table. Snapped Shot who by the way comes out with this classic...

What makes this story unusual is that so far, there has only been one report issued across the newswires (by Reuters) (odd but hardly a conspiracy theory and certainly not ignoring it as Chuckles suggests - Ed) covering the events, and even though the rioting is entering its third day, not a single photographer and has been dispatched to document the activities of the Muslim mob.

So it's back to the Qana situation for these idiots, the fact that a North African man died whilst in Police custody (after being given unnamed drug by Police) is of no consequence, the fact that North African youths who are "Shock, Horror!....Muslims" would feel aggrieved by this is outrageous to them.

It is also interesting to note that once again Charles uses the fascist tainted Brussels Journal as a source.

Don't get Aaronovitch started

You may not agree with everything journalist David Aaronovitch says in this program _ we don't. You may not like some of the things he says about Islam and the war in Iraq, and there are definitely a few flaws in his argument. But you can't deny that this film has a number of powerful arguments and poses some serious and unavoidable questions for liberals. Watch all of it here.

Charles, George and Hamid: Avoiding the question

A reporter asks President Bush a question, and the Republic spin machine goes into overdrive.

Let's start with the facts: a seasoned journalist from one of LGF's most-hated news organizations (remember, that's a badge to wear with pride!) questioned whether the war in Iraq had made the United States any safer. To which Bush's response, in effect, was: you should never have got the information you are basing your question on.

He doesn't answer her, he avoids the issue.

Hamid Karzai, Bush's lackey in Afghanistan, does the same thing: he's neither Iraqi nor American, but he feels qualified to brush the reporter's question aside and give the cameras some whiny spiel about 'should we let 9/11 happen again' without addressing the issue of whether the war in Iraq has made America safer. That kind of patronising/threatening tone may work in a loya jirga, but the press pack certainly won't be thinking that highly of him now.

And what of the chief shill-meister of the Republican blogosphere propaganda front? Well, Charles Johnson, too, avoids the question. Instead, he heaps insults on the reporter, calls the leak of a government document defeatist, and doesn't mention the word Iraq once in his two posts on the issue.

And how could he? Iraq is an issue Charles has been having trouble confronting his lizardoid operatives with lately. Except for when some 'big fish' gets caught, he's staying stumm on the matter. Because, as everyone knows but CJ doesn't dare say, the war in Iraq isn't going well. At last count, 100 people were being killed every day. New jihadis recruits were streaming into the country, getting training and combat experience and leaving for other destinations where we'll doubtlessly see them in future. Iraq's middle class has all but abandoned the country. Yet the wingnuts continue to avoid the question: how has a failed war in Iraq made America safer?

And for that matter, what about Afghanistan?

...and then there was silence.

Again, as mentioned in a post below, can you imagine your average LGF'ers response if the target of these attacks was a Christian church or a Jewish synagogue by Muslims?

Vandals scrawled swastikas and racist slogans on the walls of two mosques in France and threw Molotov cocktails at a mosque in central Russia on Sunday, September 24, the day French and Russian Muslims started celebrating Ramadan.

The mosque which was torched, in the northwest town of Quimper, suffered damage from the flames. Six swastikas were painted on the outside of its walls, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Monday, September 25. In the southwestern town of Carcassonne, the other mosque was daubed with swastikas and slogans reading "France for the French", "Arabs get out" and "Death to Islam", officials said.

In central Russia, unidentified attackers threw Molotov cocktails at a mosque in Yaroslavl in the early hours of Sunday, but the building did not catch fire, the head of a local Muslim organization said. A religious service was taking place at the time and there were worshippers in the room, but the bottles hit the window frame and fell back without exploding, he explained. The attackers also threw stones, breaking a number of mosque windows as well as the windows of cars parked in the courtyard.

Source: Islam Online & Islamophobia Watch

Fair and Balanced my Ass

Charles posts a link to the wingnut-o-sphere's attempts to spin Bill Clinton's recent interview on Fox News, but CJ can't bring himself to post the actual video. Maybe that would endanger the fragile little minds of his lizard minions.

So we'll post the video. Heh, as they say.

Suspiciously absent from LGF....

One could only guess at the hysterical rantings at LGF if this had been an attack on a Christian Church.

MELBOURNE, Fla. - A mosque was hit by gunfire as members inside celebrated the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities said Saturday.

No injuries were reported and there were no arrests.

A member of the Islamic Society of Brevard County stepped outside the mosque Friday night to use his cell phone when he heard several gun shots, police said.

The man, who was not immediately identified, took cover behind a wall as several rounds struck the building, police said. He then ran inside and told mosque members, who called police.

Authorities searched the surrounding area for suspects but found none.

A pair of binoculars, footprints and tire tracks were found in the woods across from the mosque, said Melbourne Police spokeswoman Jill Frederiksen. Investigators are still trying to determine if they are related to the case, Frederiksen said.

No other details were released, but the investigation is ongoing, Frederiksen said. Detectives were working to determine a reason for the shooting. No suspects have been named.

Charles has, somewhat amazingly, another post about a crescent shaped memorial. The MSN must be quaking in their boots.

Source: AP Wire

The Enemy Within

The most repugnant trend in the American shouting match that passes for a debate on the struggle with Islamist terrorism isn't the irresponsible nonsense on the left - destructive though that is. The really ugly "domestic insurgency" is among right-wing extremists bent on discrediting honorable conservatism.

How? By insisting that Islam can never reform, that the violent conquest and subjugation of unbelievers is the faith's primary agenda - and, when you read between the lines, that all Muslims are evil and subhuman.

I've received no end of e-mails and letters seeking to "enlighten" me about the insidious nature of Islam. Convinced that I'm naive because I defend American Muslims and refuse to "see" that Islam is 100 percent evil, the writers warn that I'm a foolish "dhimmi," blind to the conspiratorial nature of Islam.

Web sites list no end of extracts from historical documents and Islamic jurisprudence "proving" that holy war against Christians and Jews is the alpha and omega of the Muslim faith. The message between the lines: Muslims are Untermenschen.

We've been here before, folks. Bigotry is bigotry - even when disguised as patriotism. And, invariably, the haters fantasizing about a merciless Crusade never bothered to serve in our military (Hey, guys, there's still time to join. Lay your backsides on the line - and send your kids!).

Are you listening, Charles Johnson?

Read the whole article.

Faux Johnson

Any chance, and Johnson will try and peddle the fauxtography line , however tenuous the link. This time Emil Lahoud's speech at the UN prompts him to rant about the "corpse-posing ghoul from Qana", Salam Daher, a Lebanese civil defense worker who spent days digging the living and dead from the rubble of their homes during the recent conflict.

Charles has a problem with the fact that Daher "removes a child’s body from an ambulance and poses it for photographers like a side of beef". What Charles doesn't have a problem with is that the child was dead in the first place. Yes, killing Lebanese children is ok at LittleGreenFootballs.com . Just don't show the world what happened.

Incidentally, do you remember Charles's pathetic attempts early on in this story to spin it so that somehow the building spontaneously collapsed in on itself of its own accord? It won't surprise you that Charles didn't link to this particular article: "IDF: We assumed building in Qana to be empty". Wonder why not...

Charles Johnson: Bad for America

The Bilal Hussein story goes on and on, doesn't it? One day Charles is showing pictures Hussein allegedly took (only to have to eat his words when it is pointed out to him they aren't Hussein's); the next, he reproduces his friend Malkin's claim Hussein was present at the execution of an Italian man (but again is proven wrong by the facts).

Every day, Charles Johnson twists and turns the story in an attempt to divert from the screamingly obvious question he doesn't dare confront his readers with:

If the military has dirt on Hussein, why doesn't it charge him?

This is a question CJ can't face, much less answer. And so he continues to peddle all kinds of half-truths and outright lies, such as the line that Hussein "had been arrested while in the presence of an Al Qaeda leader", when in fact even the US military only goes so far as to say the man he was arrested with was an alleged Al Qaeda (in Iraq!) leader. But dropping a word here and there to distort the facts has never been a problem for Charles Johnson on his information warfare crusade.

It does make him look like an idiot, though, when he baldly states that "I have not seen a single blogger advocate 'blocking coverage that doesn’t portray the US policy in the best light,' and I have certainly never advocated such a thing myself."

Doesn't the man read Littlegreenfootballs.com? Among other things this shoddy excuse for a racist movement does regularly is accuse journalists of 'revealing' 'secrets' that 'undermine' 'our troops' in the 'war on terror', and 'give comfort to the enemy' by 'portraying America in a bad light'. Oh, and he also encourages people to shoot photographers.

In fact, it's Johnson who should be doing the soul-searching, because his one-sided depiction of reality not only makes him look stupid, it also makes Americans appear more bigoted, small-minded and bloodthirsty than they are.