Weird

A slightly modified screen capture from PJM:



Someone at Pajamas Media thinks there's some sort of connection between Kesher Talk's discussion of one possible aftermath of the Palestinian election, and LaShawn Barber's report on the death of Coretta Scott King, which oozes contempt for most of King's late husband's associates.

For the life of me, I can't imagine what the connection is. Except, perhaps, that both posts were written by women.

This is the ground-breaking new media paradigm website that's going to change the world?

(And whatever happened to those PJM comments, anyway?)

A few Tuesday thoughts

As of this writing, Little Green Pajamas Media Footballs has yet to rev up its Gloat-O-Matic over today's confirmation of Sam Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. I'll bet a whole euro that most of the right-wing élite's reaction, as "rounded up" at Green Footballs Little Footballs Media, will center on how the other side is reacting.

One topic we'd like to see discussed -- especially here -- is the fact that one of the votes to confirm Alito came from none other than Sen. Robert Byrd (D - WV). On a certain level, his support of Alito makes perfect sense. But will this spell an end to Byrd-bashing among the "Mary Jo Kopechne died on 9/12" crowd?

Speaking of the lovely Pamela, we notice that Sheraton ads are back in rotation at Pajamas Media. One wonders how some of these folks would enjoy seeing their fine product advertised right next to a typical foam-flecked Pameloid rant. [Starwood is Sheraton's parent company.] Why, some of them might be so upset, they'll find themselves lying awake in their Sweet Sleeper Beds^SM. Tsk.

Don't mention Xinhua!

A commentator at Dennis The Peasant's blog reminds us of events past (Xinhua News anyone?), that puts the current anti-Google noise made by some of the Pajamanistas, most notibly their head honcho into context.

The very same Pajamas Media that used censored news supplied by the totalitarian Chinese government in order to make a buck is now calling for everyone to sell their stock in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft because those companies have the nerve to try to make a buck helping the totalitarian Chinese government make the internet read like the news feed provided by Pajamas Media!

To quote the ever excellent Dennis...

Thank God that Greasy Fuck cut me out of Pajamas Media.

Thank.Fucking.God.

I'd rather shovel shit at minimum wage than try make a buck peddling faux moral outrage.

The Depravity of Charles Johnson

There are few more loathsome than those who promote hatred and ignorance for profit. Charles Johnson is one such with his Little Green Footballs websewer, brand-leader of Pajamas Media. Over the past few years, Johnson has collected a rabble of syncophantic followers who proudly and collectively refer to themselves as "Lizardoid Minions". They even have their own clothing line. Hiding behind a disclaimer on LGF, Johnson stokes his followers with an endless diet of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim cut-n-pastings sprinkled with sneering asides, the limit of his "creative" abilities. When not inculcating racism and bigotry, Johnson likes to parrot GOP talking points and heap praise on Bush.

In a faux-neutral post about the kidnapping of journalist (and presumed "leftist") Jill Carroll, Johnson knows exactly what to expect. The "minions" deliver. Example:

ted 1/30/2006 04:32PM PST

Whats her problem ? She went to Iraq on a "peace" mission to "help" victims abused by the american military...now the holy warriors dress her up as a muslima and want to martyr her...

What more could she ask for?

Jeez, Rachel Corrie would spit[spat] blood to be in her position...What an ingrate.

A few weeks ago, the "minions" celebrated the deaths of hundreds of Haaj pilgrims.

pat 1/12/2006 08:37AM PST
look forward to this every year.

rednaxela 1/12/2006 08:37AM PST
IIRC, dying in Mecca is the best thing that can happen to a RoPer.

Nekama 1/12/2006 08:38AM PST
Darwin is a Muslim?

bonz 1/12/2006 08:40AM PST
Latest novelty item: a burkha with footprints on it. Across the front it reads "I made the Hajj and all I got was this lousy burkha"

Johnson is a jihadist recruiter's best friend. His website is a disgrace and an affront and presents the Bush vision of the US to the world. It is time to question those who choose to advertise on "Pajamas Media", do you really want to be associated with this?

Coretta Scott King - RIP

Gone but never forgotten.

Coretta Scott King, who surged to the forefront of the fight for racial equality in America after her husband Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, has died at age 78.

She had suffered a stroke and a heart attack in August.

Mrs. King's steely determination, grace and class won her millions of admirers inside and outside the civil rights movement.

Rep. John Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia and civil rights leader, said it was "a very sad hour."

"Long before she met and married Dr. King, she was an activist for peace and civil rights and for civil liberties," he told CNN. "She became the embodiment, the personification (of the civil rights movement after Dr. King's death) ... keeping the mission, the message, the philosophy, ... of nonviolence in the forefront."

Via Reuters.co.ca

A history forgotten/ignored

This is a fantastic piece about the Holocaust, the Muslim connections and Muslim attitudes towards it by Mas'ood Cajee.

On exploitation:

A growing chorus of voices which exploits the Holocaust for political gain has been trying to smear Muslims - and Arabs in particular - with grand accusations of complicity in the Holocaust and support for the Nazis. These voices serve hawkish interests in Israel and the United States who wish to justify and legitimize continued war, violence, and yes - even genocide - against Muslims and Arabs. Identifying Muslims with and as Nazis eases the task of selling continued bloodshed to war-weary publics.

On the "Mufti" of Jerusalem:

What these smearing Islamophobes don't like to tell you: the "Mufti" was actually an appointee of the Jewish administrator of British Palestine who completed one measly year at Al-Azhar and betrayed the Ottoman Sultan to join the British. The much-vaunted "Hanschar" SS division - disbanded after a few months due to mass desertions - was the only SS division ever to mutiny. Because they are allied to the power establishments in Israel & the United States, the Holocaust exploiters generally keep mum about American, Jewish, and Zionist complicity in the Holocaust.

On Holocaust denial:

On the other side, too many Muslim and Arab intellectuals and leaders continue to fail in adequately addressing the Nazi holocaust and its implications for today in meaningful, humanitarian terms. Two recent examples include the Muslim Council of Britain's daft refusal to participate in Britain's annual Holocaust Memorial Day and the public indulgence in Holocaust revisionism and labeling of the Nazi holocaust as "myth" by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood chief Muhammad Akef. Deep-seated, knee-jerk anti-Zionism and the continuing occupation of Palestine have unfortunately blinded many Arabs and Muslims to the historical reality and legacy of the Nazi holocaust.

On Muslim heroes of the Holocaust:

In their perversion of memory, Holocaust deniers and exploiters share another moral ugliness. Both insult the memory of the countless Muslims who risked or gave their lives to rescue Jews threatened with extermination by the Nazis. The stories of the Muslim rescuers of Jews are largely unknown and unpublicized. Only in the past fifteen years have Holocaust researchers brought a few to the public's attention.

Several Muslims (whose stories of heroism and courage we know) have since been honored by Yad Vashem and other Holocaust memorial groups as Righteous Gentiles. They include: the Bosnian Dervis Korkut, who harbored a young Jewish woman resistance fighter named Mira Papo and saved the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the most valuable Hebrew manuscripts in the world; the Turk Selahattin Ulkumen, whose rescue of fifty Jews from the ovens of Auschwitz led to the death of his wife Mihrinissa soon after she gave birth to their son Mehmet when the Nazis retaliated for his heroism; the Albanian Refik Vesili who - as a 16-year-old - saved eight Jews by hiding them in his family's mountain home.

Most Holocaust historians would agree that Muslim Europe - Albania, Bosnia, and Turkey - responded courageously and righteously, especially in comparison to Christian Europe. While there were Muslims who collaborated with the Nazis, they were the exception and certainly not the rule. In addition, in North Africa the Sultan of Morocco, the Bey of Tunis, and the Ulema of Algeria all lent support to their beleaguered Jewish countrymen.

Continental Europe's only independent Muslim country - Albania - was also the only European country to have a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than at the beginning, according to Miles Lerman, a former director of the US National Holocaust Museum. Harvey Sarner, a Jewish American in awe of the Albanian Muslim response, penned the telling book "Rescue in Albania: One Hundred Percent of Jews in Albania Rescued from the Holocaust".

[...]

Republican Turkey thankfully followed that same Ottoman tradition of rescue and sanctuary. Due to its neutrality during most of World War II, and its unique geographical proximity to both Europe and the Middle East, Turkey and Turkish diplomats living abroad played an important role for European Jews in danger during World War II and the Holocaust, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Muslim-majority Turkey rescued over 15,000 Turkish Jews and over 100,000 European Jews.

Read it all here:
On Holocaust Exploiters, Deniers, & Heroes by Mas'ood Cajee

When journalists take drugs

Case in point, Alison Rowat.

Pajamas Media, one of the biggest and most respected of blog forums, likens the seismic impact of the internet on journalism to the invention of the printing press.

Respected? How did that happen. Both right, left and centre have been laughing out loud since the launch.

PS Alison, Pajamas Media is not a forum. It's a travesty.

Via Catch.com

NSA and Pakistan podcasts

In a break from our usual programing, here are links to two very interesting podcasts that constitute essential listening for anyone wanting to discuss the recent NSA wiretapping scandal and the reality behind Bush's WoT ally, Pakistan.

Brought to you by the decent folks at Radio Open Source (yes, the same people who claimed the name "open source media" long before Johnson and Co)

The fake crusade

Justin Raimondo hits on why the anti-Google postings coming out of La-La Land citizen 'journalists' isn't just about Chinese human rights and their concern for the freedom of information in the People's Republic. It's because Google won't play ball with their type of propaganda. Well, boo-hoo.

"The campaign against Google is nothing new. As the bad news on the Iraq war front began to dominate the headlines, neocon bloggers Glenn Reynolds, Little Green Footballs, and their amen corner started screaming that Google is 'biased.' How dare they carry Antiwar.com, brayed Charles Johnson, the net's premier Arab-hater, and not his cut-and-paste editorials – consisting mostly of quotes from other sources interspersed with brief bouts of sneering and cat-calling. Google, the neocon bloggers declared, deliberately ignores their no-talent ill-written diatribes, and instead promotes antiwar, 'anti-American,' and even 'anti-Semitic' propaganda (all three being pretty much equivalent in their minds)."

Via James Wolcott

Google is evil

But then, so are Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, GM, Ford, GE, Citigroup, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Altria, Boeing, Target, Bank of America, Costco, Dell, Sears Roebuck, UPS, J.C. Penney Co, Microsoft, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Disney, PepsiCo, Kmart, American Express, International Paper, Caterpillar, FedEx, Coca-Cola, Cisco Systems, 3M, McDonald's, General Dynamics, The Gap, Xerox, Federated Department Stores, May Department Stores, Eastman Kodak, Office Depot, Toys "R" Us, Nike, Circuit City, Texas Instruments, Oracle, Marriott, Limited Brands, Clear Channel, Yum!, Nordstrom, Apple, Saks, Unisys, R.J. Reynolds, Estee Lauder, Mattel, Foot Locker, RadioShack, Liz Claiborne, Levi Strauss, Hilton, Starwood, and Reebok.

Not to mention Daimler-Chrysler, News Corporation, EADS, Shell, BP, HSBC, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Sony, IKEA, Fuji, Canon, Volkswagen, Hitachi, Toshiba, Carrefour, Tyco, BMW, Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, Hyundai, British-American Tobacco, Sanyo, Ricoh, Suzuki, and Sumitomo.

As Dennis the Peasant so rightly points out, if you're going to mount your moral high horse and proclaim that any company whose business model depends on maintaining cordial relationships with the ChiComs is evil and must therefore be punished (sort of, maybe, in an entirely theoretical sort of way), then you'd better be prepared to go All. The. Way.

Otherwise -- as DtP also rightly points out -- you're just a rhymes-with-banker.

Empty-headed Pamela

Richard over at Tikkun Olam follows up the story of Atlas shrugs and the carpet bombing of Jerusalem: link

LGF snubs Holocaust Memorial Day

An LGF'er is appalled at Google's lack of 'celebration' of Holocaust Memorial Day....

391 abunafha2 1/27/2006 01:31PM PST
today was the holocaust memorial day.

this is how google is "celebrating" it.

http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/6623/google9td.jpg

apparently, it is mozart's birthday as well.

assholes.

Good point. It was disappointing that Google did not add a graphic to its main page to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. Although, before criticising Google, the 'lizard' in question may want to enquire where LGF's and Pajama Media's coverage of the event was. Was there any? For the life of me I can't find it.

CHARLES ON EL BARADEI

El Baradei was talking about the root causes of extremism and the statement in BOLD is too much for Charles:

“Lots of that is taking place both on the hands of national governments, lack of good governance, suppression of human rights. Lots of that is coming also from the outside. And if you have that coming both ways, you see a lot of extremists,” ElBaradei said.

Of course, Charles doesn't remember someone else talking about outside forces having an undersirable effect in the Middle East:

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe -- because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty."

BUSH, 11/6/03
President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East
Remarks by the President at the 20th Anniversary
of the National Endowment for Democracy
United States Chamber of Commerce
Washington, D.C.
11:05 A.M. EST

File under "Duh"

L.A. Observed observes (emphasis added):

In the February issue of Los Angeles magazine, R.J. Smith examines Pajamas Media to ask whether it is a fledgling media phenomenon or a blip with $3.5 million in seed money, paid staff, polling by Nielsen and earnest promotion by blogger/founders Roger L. Simon and Charles Johnson. One obstacle, Smith writes, is that big national advertisers may not want to be connected with the "constitutionally protected hate speech" found in the reader comments at Johnson's Little Green Footballs and some other political sites.

In the blogosphere harvesting hits equal success. Buzz is good. But it's the extremists who get the most viewers, those on either end of the spectrum who say stuff that isn't often heard from the "respectable middle." Advertisers want hits, too, but they don't want to be associated with extremists.

Simon ducked out of commenting on LGF's effect on ad sales and Johnson wouldn't return Smith's calls. Neither would Aubrey Chernick, Pajamas Media's lead financier. Smith writes that Chernick's involvement with NC4, a company that advises the government on anti-terrorism preparations, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee fuels talk that "the question isn't whether the administration will turn its media manipulation efforts to blogs. It's when."

Gee, ya think?

[UPDATE: Welcome, Eschaton readers!]

Librulz r fagits LOL!!!1!111!!

That, we assume, was the original title of the lovely Pamela's fag-baiting photo essay, before she ran it through her spell checker.

"Love is a many-splendid thing" indeed. So here, for your browsing enjoyment, are a few more photos of leading news-makers behaving in a less-than-100%-heterosexual manner.























What is it about Republicans, anyway?

UPDATE: Reader Teddy points us to the ultimate Republican Hardcore:
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2691235?htv=12

Eh, thanks Teddy.

The $7 million blog

Exciting news from LA, Sydney, and Barcelona!

Pajamas Media has now re-purposed its branding and crafted a new vehicle to better leverage its synergies. As part of its new paradigm, PJM has incorporated elements of interactivity and other measures designed to foster a sense of temporal continuity and greater user involvement.

In other words: Pajamas Media has evolved -- again. Into a blog. With comments! And timestamps! And a blogroll! And RSS headline feeds!

How staggeringly exciting and ground-breaking. Kudos to PJ Media for spending millions of bucks and several months to "invent" an online information-sharing format that was already au courant three years ago. Oh, and we rather like the new new logo too -- at least it resembles a pair of pajamas (albeit the sort you might expect to be issued at a psychiatric hospital), as opposed to a kimono.

Ultimatum

One of the LGF Death Cult's most cherished fantasies may soon come true:

The kidnappers of four western peace activists, including two Canadians, have released a new videotape and a statement threatening to kill the men.

U.S.-led forces have one "last chance" to release Iraqi prisoners or the group calling itself the Swords of Truth will kill the hostages, according to the statement read on Al-Jazeera television.

No deadline was set.

Al-Jazeera said it aired the entire tape, which lasted around 55 seconds and was dated Jan. 21.

James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, were kidnapped at gunpoint on Nov. 26 along with Briton Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54. Loney is from Toronto and Sooden has lived in Montreal.

The tape shows the four hostages standing against a wall in a dimly lit room. In another scene, they're sitting and appear to be talking, but their words are not audible.

We join the rest of the civilized world in hoping that the four are released unharmed, along with all others being held hostage in Iraq.

Minion Mischief

When they're not parroting groupthink wingnut nonsense, or pounding their chickenhawk chests, the "Lizardoid Minions" of LGF like to cherrypick posts from Atrios and Kos and others of their betters. They'll quote and deride "moonbats" and work each other into a lather of indignation... about messages that they've planted.... Charles "Squeaky" Johnson plays right along.

Killgore Trout 1/28/2006 11:11AM PST

#138 Iron
Fist I've been having fun trolling this morning over at Kos. I just post about
the MSM being owned by the Military Industrial Complex, fascists rewriting the
constitution, and neocons goosestepping down K Street and they eat it up over
there. Big Fun.


Iron Fist 1/28/2006 11:15AM PST

#146 Killgore
Trout,
Yeah, it can be fun to go over to Kos and wax totally moonbat, and
watch the herd agree with you.
I have never proposed something really radical
like killing all white people. Maybe I should :-)


Killgore Trout 1/28/2006 11:29AM PST

#157 Iron Fist Yeah, it's going to seriously dip into my work
time.

There is no doubt that if Iron Fist, aka Steve Johnson from Knoxville TN (he posted his name on LGF a while ago, bragging it was a "common name") did in fact post about "killing all white people", the rest of his mission would be to alert Charles Johnson (they might as well be related) who could then express his "outrage", as he has many times. This is how Bushites work. They have no honor. They lie and slime and sneak around.

KOS has been notified.

UPDATE:

Is this "Kilgore Trout" posting on KOS?

I am worried (none
/ 0)
that all this filibuster attempt will do is further alienate us from
the population at large. I mean, let's face it, not everyone pays as much
attention to politics as the people who frequent this website. If what the
general citizenry takes away from all of this is that what Democrats do best is
obstruct (for no good reason, according to them) I don't see how this increases
our chances of winning elections. If what we do is turning off the electorate it
seems like we're just cutting off our nose to spite our face. There aren't
enough votes to sustain this filibuster. I think we should have held our fire,
because the chances are good that Bush will have the opportunity to choose
another member of SCOTUS before the end of his term. If we waste all our ammo on
what we know is a losing battle, we won't have any ammo (or credibility) left
for that fight.
by potboiler on Sat Jan 28,
2006 at 09:30:05 AM PDT

Any Questions?

How not to pitch your business.....

Further adventures in mocking Pajamas Media here at Dennis The Peasant's blog.

Democracy...when it suits us

Pajamasmedia in general and LGF in particular have a problem with democracy. On the one hand it's a sacred good (as in 'Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East' and 'Four more years!'). On the other hand it means that you might have to face up to the fact that other people don't like who you like. And sometimes it just gets so plain complicated that the average lizard brain can't cope and shuts down.

America brings democracy to Iraq but....ooops, they've elected a bunch of religious fanatics.

Israel bombs Gaza strip, imprisons the leading Fatah candidate and pushes its 'separation barrier' further and further into the West Bank and...surprise, surprise, Palestinians vote for Hamas (yes, we know, that's not the only reason).

Canadians kick out a corrupt Liberal government and give a tentative mandate to the Tories...wahey!...but then he turns round and slaps America over access to the Arctic.

It's these subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) issues that make democracy interesting - except if you're not really interested in democracy, but rather in promoting your own agenda at the expense of others.

Ultimate Blowback

Here's something certain right-wing bloggers won't mention while whining about the democratic election of terrorist supporting Hamas in Palestine.

Amid all the howls of pain and gnashing of teeth over the triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, one fact remains relatively obscure, albeit highly relevant: Israel did much to launch Hamas as an effective force in the occupied territories. If ever there was a clear case of "blowback," then this is it. As Richard Sale pointed out in a piece for UPI:

"Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years. Israel 'aided Hamas directly – the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),' said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic [and International] Studies. Israel's support for Hamas 'was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,' said a former senior CIA official."

Middle East analyst Ray Hanania concurs:

"In addition to hoping to turn the Palestinian masses away from Arafat and the PLO, the Likud leadership believed they could achieve a workable alliance with Islamic, anti-Arafat forces that would also extend Israel's control over the occupied territories."

In a conscious effort to undermine the Palestine Liberation Organization and the leadership of Yasser Arafat, in 1978 the government of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin approved the application of Sheik Ahmad Yassin to start a "humanitarian" organization known as the Islamic Association, or Mujama. The roots of this Islamist group were in the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, and this was the seed that eventually grew into Hamas – but not before it was amply fertilized and nurtured with Israeli funding and political support.

Read it all here: Hamas, Son of Israel- by Justin Raimondo

The Pajama Scam

There is every indication that "Open Source Media" aka "Pajamas Media" is nothing but a front. A sham site designed not to make money, but to shovel wingnut cash to neo-con and bushite bloggers, some 70 of whom have been "signed up" with PJM and are receiving a monthly pay-off to keep repeating republican talking points, praising the war and bashing liberal critics.

Lavishly funded to the tune of $7,000,000, Pajamas Media isn't even pretending to try and function as a real business.

Evidence here.

The General Needs Some Assistance

Lacking the support of a huge right-wing slush fund, like the Duck Speak blogs of Stained Pajamas Media, bloggers in the reality-based community have to fend for themselves.

There is no finer patriot than Jesus' General, and, today, he needs our help.

So, please, help him!

Meme of the day

"Coincidence."

"One person can make a difference"

Over 11 million people died in the systematic genocide carried out by the Third Reich. The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2006 is "One person can make a difference". Some ceremonies are being held today insted of tomorrow to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. This is because of the clash with the Jewish sabbath.

During the years of the Holocaust everyone had to make moral choices. Some people became perpetrators, others were bystanders. A small minority chose to help the persecuted – these are the rescuers and helpers. This was an extraordinary selfless choice. It meant risking not only their own lives but the lives of their own family and children. Many paid with their lives. None succeeded in halting the Holocaust but many Jews were enabled to survive as a result of their efforts. Each chose to defy the power of the Nazis and their collaborators – mostly single-handedly. Mostly we think of them as non-Jews who helped Jews but we should not overlook the many acts of kindness and support between persecuted Jews as well. That choice made a huge difference to many individual lives. More importantly they showed the power of the individual and provided hope in otherwise hopeless circumstances by demonstrating the importance of moral courage in action.

Individuals who make moral choices and act upon them can and do make a difference. They demonstrate that those who actively oppose prejudice, racism, persecution and murder can make a difference. Making such moral choices is challenging for individuals and many were fearful but persevered in spite of their fears. Their example shows that learning to use one’s voice to enhance positive human values turns good intentions into real actions. It is about making the choices to do what is right rather than what is expedient. It sets out to dispel the argument, ‘I am only one person, what can I do?’, and shows that one person can achieve a great deal, however modest their actions might initially appear.

It is also a sobering experience remembering the 1.5 Million Souls under 12 years of age that never returned ...........and a important to think of children still being caught up in conflict to this day.

"The first to perish were the children, abandoned orphans
The world's best, the bleak earth's brightest
These children might have been our comfort
From these sad, mute, bleak faces
Our new dawn might have risen"

- From "Song of the Murdered Jewish People"by Yitzhak Katzenelson

"Childhood is a time of innocence, a cloak of protection under which the future generation may experience the gifts of life. At this stage, individuals discover their self, and formulate the basic attitude and perception through which they view the world. Because they comprise the future generation of humanity and are gaining the experience they will need to lead our world, children are the most prized possession of our population. However, 1.5 million children experienced a different form of childhood. They were stripped from their families, forced to work in concentration camps, and eventually murdered during a period of utmost evil, the Holocaust."

Read more here.

Further reading:

Isurvived.org
Yad Vashem
Nizkor
Holocaust History
Holocaust Survivors
Remember.org
Holocaust Heroes

Wolcott strikes again

James Wolcott pours scorn over Roger L. Simon with his usual acidic wit here.

After summoning shareholders to sell Google (and presumably pay the taxes on capital gains), Simon releases the following thought balloon:

"(Full disclosure: I do not own any Google stock, but would, I'm assuming, have the courage of my convictions, if I did.)"

"I'm assuming"!?!

He's calling on those who have Google stock to sell their holdings but can't unequivocably declare he'd sell his if he had any? Those two little weasel words betray that he doesn't have the "courage" of his "convictions," only the hypothetical courage of convictions subject to changing conditions.

No wonder he's become a neocon.

Good show sir.

Indeed

"I find the comments on Atrios, Kos, or for that matter Little Green Footballs, to be tiresome."

- Glenn Reynolds

Happiness isn't a warm gun

Fancy an AK-47? Looking to buy an early Christmas present for your young, virile son? Look no further.

Much more information here on these startling deals.

Via Antony Loewenstein

The Peasant is back!

After a longish semi-hiatus, Dennis the Peasant is gearing up to reveal some more embarrassing information about Pajamas Media.

I'm starting to get some information on Pajamas Media's "marketing efforts" and "advertising" from my cadre of informers, saboteurs and con artists. That's because Tom Troja is finally getting around to answering their emails. Nothing like a 30+ day turnaround on a request for advertising rates to tell you all you need to know about where Pajamas is gonna be a year from now.

This oughta be good.

What Chavez really said

You may recently have come across the "Chavez is anti-semitic" meme which is being fervently spread by the wingnut blogosphere. Charles Johnson featured it on LGF on 2 January (http://makeashorterlink.com/?C5F11278C and it has been thrown about endlessly in LGF comments as well as becoming a central plank of the thesis that Hugo Chavez is a crazy dictator who needs to be deposed.

The wingnuts are by far not the only people spreading this meme: the Simon Wiesenthal center condemned Chavez's remarks, and even intellectuals in his own country warned Chavez was treading a dangerous path.

The problem is that the meme is largely based on a single paragraph from a speech Chavez gave on 24 December. According to Charles Johnson et al, Chavez said:

“the descendants of those who crucified Christ... have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.”

What Chavez actually said is quite different, as FAIR points out:

The world has an offer for everybody but it turned out that a few minorities--the descendants of those who crucified Christ, the descendants of those who expelled Bolivar from here and also those who in a certain way crucified him in Santa Marta, there in Colombia--they took possession of the riches of the world, a minority took possession of the planet’s gold, the silver, the minerals, the water, the good lands, the oil, and they have concentrated all the riches in the hands of a few; less than 10 percent of the world population owns more than half of the riches of the world.

And, if you prefer, here is the original quote in Spanish:

El mundo tiene para todos, pues, pero resulta que unas minorías, los descendientes de los mismos que crucificaron a Cristo, los descendientes de los mismos que echaron a Bolívar de aquí y también lo crucificaron a su manera en Santa Marta, allá en Colombia. Una minoría se adueñó de las riquezas del mundo, una minoría se adueñó del oro del planeta, de la plata, de los minerales, de las aguas, de las tierras buenas, del petróleo, de las riquezas, pues, y han concentrado las riquezas en pocas manos: menos del diez por ciento de la población del mundo es dueña de más de la mitad de la riqueza de todo el mundo y a la...

As you can see, Charles deleted the part of the speech which makes it clear that Chavez was not speaking of Jews (in any case, it was the Romans who crucified Jesus, but let's leave the Biblethumping to the wingnuts).

While Charles did use elipses to indicate that something had been cut from the quote, the fact that he deleted such an essential part of it is nothing less than deception.

Typical Charles Johnson...

O, Pamela!

Here's what passes for "World News" over at Pajamas Little Green Open Media Footballs:

Sing it loud and sing it Proud. The Conservatives Win Big in Canada. Hope springs eternal. Our northern neighbors deserve our respect and admiration. They must be projevtile vomiting over at the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Rubbing my eyes in disbelief and rubbing yours too................great balls of fire!

Leaving aside the misspellings, inaccuracies (the Conservatives didn't "win big" by any stretch of the imagination), and.....................................creative punctuation, why is such an obviously slanted news snippet not tagged as an "Opinion" piece -- like, for instance, Rusty "Jawa" Shackleford's well-written and cogent article about kidnappings in Iraq, whose ideological slant is -- if anything -- less evident than Pamela's?

PS. Pamela, let me take my glasses off first, mkay?

About A Bedwetter...

The talented Mr Berube piddles on hack Roger L Simon.

Hyperbole rulez!: Jawa Report and the 'terrorist'

The other day, Charles Johnson trumpeted: "Rusty Shackleford Helps Nab Would-be Terrorist, and LGF applauds".

As with so many things Johnson, not all is as it seems. Any minion bothering to click the link and read Rusty's blog post would have found a sorry tale of bloated self-importance and Mitty-esque delusions.

Rusty claims that, because he found the email address and forum postings of a man who claimed to be planning a terror attack against the US, and because this man was subsequently arrested and convicted of a crime, his blog, the 'Jawa Report' somehow foiled a terror attack.

If only.

What the Jawa report actually did was help lead the authorities to someone who appears to have violated immigration rules and, while living in the US, posted comments fantasizing on a message board about organising a terror attack (not unlike what LGFers do day in, day out).

Said person lied about his forum postings to the FBI, who naturally interrogated him about them, and now he is being done for "lying to Federal investigators". And that, friends, is it. Somewhat bizzarely, our friend Rusty describes this as a "terrorist" offence.

Now ask yourself this: if the FBI thought there was any chance of getting this man convicted of a terrorist offence, don't you think they would be urging prosecutors to do their duty and protect America from this fiendish individual?

The fact that there is nothing to suggest that the man was anywhere near recruiting a terror cell, never mind organising an attack, seems to have passed both Rusty and Charles by in their conclusion that bloggers 'nabbed a terrorist'

So, basically, Jawa Report is a fraud for claiming the scalp of a terrorist, and Charles Johnson is a fraud for claiming Jawa Report caught a terrorist. But then, what do you expect from an ex-hippy who thinks he's a lizard and plans to take over the world in his pajamas?

Quiz

Quick: what do Iran, Zimbabwe, and China have in common?

If you answered, "they're all repressive dictatorships that sided with the U.S. against a request by an international gay-rights group to join a U.N. advisory committee," you're absolutely right!

Time for another mash note, Pamela!

Shorter Marc Cooper

Pacifica is the "Pajamas Media" of radio.

Lie down with dogs

Yesterday a blogger wrote:

[A]n entire civil religion and cult has been organised around the Holocaust.

Must be either (a) a pro-Iranian Islamo-fascist nutbag or (b) a typical Jooooo-hating European Marxo-Islamic dhimwit, right?

Nope. That nugget of numskullery was provided by the author of Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch blog that has, on at least one occasion, been featured at Pajamas Media -- and not in the "Opinion" category, either.

Snouck's main preoccupations are immigrant-bashing and defending the British National Party, which even The Sun describes as a "vile racist party," and which is now busily re-branding itself as a mainstream conservative organization.

Do "Pajamas Media in Los Angeles" (or Sydney or Barcelona) realize that they've featured material written by a white supremacist with neo-Fascist sympathies? Or do they just not care -- as long as what they republish bashes either Islam, or European liberalism, or -- preferably -- both?

Lie down with dogs, get fleas.

PJM bias: a case study

Little Open Football Pajamas Media, like the rest of the right-wing blogosphere, is gloating about the Canadian election result. Slap in the face for the L³ (which still kept the Tories to a staggeringly immense 36% of the popular vote); worldwide march of "conservatism" (Chile and Bolivia, among others, seem not to have gotten the memo); blah blah blah.

And, true to form, Roger el-Simon's MSM-slaying über-blog lists eleven bloggers with eleven virtually identical pro-Conservative POVs and bills this list as "a blog round-up of reactions to the Canadian elections."

There are, however, more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy. (I'm talkin' to you, Mark Steyn!) So here's what some other Canadian cowpokes are sayin' about the "Maple Revolution":

Progressive Bloggers:

The people have given to the Tories what they gave to Paul Martin in 2004. A short leash.

GritPatriot:

There will be another election in 18 months. No matter what happens tonight it is win-win for the Liberals. We know that a significant percentage of CPC votes are from traditional Liberal voters who are upset over sponsorship. It will be difficult for HArper [sic] to hold on to this support after the election. He will very quickly lose these votes. Meanwhile the Liberal Party will be reborn and back stronger than before. HArper will not be able to please his Alberta base. They will expect a socially conservative republican agenda and HArper will not deliver that.

Red Tory:

Should be interesting to see how Harper will manage to hold together the tenuous, rickety contraption that will be the new government. Throughout the campaign Harper made a promise a day, but now… however you do the math, it all adds up to COMPROMISE. That might not go over too well with the diehard neo-cons seeking radical change. And uh, oh… “THE WEST IS HERE!” That’s what Harper boldly proclaimed in his acceptance speech. Hey, send in the clowns! In that speech he also kept repeating the word “strong” as if by simply chanting this mantra would somehow make it real. Clearly, the result is not a strong mandate and there is very limited political capital being provided here.

Le blogue d'Olivier:

Je suis assez content du résultat, en fait. Après plus de douze ans de pouvoir, les libéraux vont se ressourcer dans l'opposition. Les conservateurs ont les mains liées. Le bloc québécois n'est pas hégémonique au Québec, mais il reste dominant: il ne pourra pas dormir sur ses lauriers et devra continuer à rester une force de proposition. Et puis ça change.

We join Canadian bloggers from across the political spectrum in congratulating Harper on his victory. But we predict that some of his most vocal supporters, especially those buttinskys from south of the border, will be bitterly disappointed when he fails to deliver what they want most: (a) Canadian troops in Iraq; and (b) the repeal of same-sex marriage. They will simply have to be content with the knowledge that Canada now has a Prime Minister who says "God bless Canada" at the end of every speech.

A "maple revolution"? More like a Tim Horton's hiccup. Or, if the Bloc ends up playing a role in Harper's coalition, a poutine putsch.

A Reading For Atlas, Pathetic Coulter Wannabee

"His head was thrown back a little, and because of the angle at which he was sitting, his spectacles caught the light and presented to Winston two blank discs instead of eyes. What was slightly horrible, was that from the stream of sound that poured out of his mouth it was almost impossible to distinguish a single word. Just once Winston caught a phrase -'complete and final elimination of Goldsteinism'- jerked out very rapidly and, as it seemed, all in one piece, like a line of type cast solid. For the rest it was just a noise, a quack-quack-quacking. And yet, though you could not actually hear what the man was saying, you could not be in any doubt about its general nature. He might be denouncing Goldstein and demanding sterner measures against thought-criminals and saboteurs, he might be fulminating against the atrocities of the Eurasian army, he might be praising Big Brother or the heroes on the Malabar front -- it made no difference. Whatever it was, you could be certain that every word of it was pure orthodoxy, pure Ingsoc. As he watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man's brain that was speaking, it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck." -- George Orwell, "1984"

Supporting the troops

The Haliburton way....

A HALLIBURTON Co subsidiary provided water to US troops at a camp in Iraq that was twice as contaminated as water from the Euphrates River, former employees of the company said.

The subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, also blocked employees' attempts to inform the US military at Camp Junction City in Ramadi that the water was foul or tell them that water tanks should immediately be chlorinated, the workers said.

They cited KBR's failure to test or treat the water in the latest in a series of hearings Senate Democrats have held on Halliburton, which was once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney and has huge contracts to provide services to the US military in Iraq.

Halliburton said in a statement it had found "no evidence to substantiate allegations made by these former employees".

While bottled water was provided for drinking and cooking, the soldiers at the camp used the contaminated water for bathing, shaving and laundry.

"We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated," said an internal e-mail from Will Granger, who was KBR's water quality manager for all of Iraq and Kuwait.

"The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River," continued the e-mail dated July 15 of last year and released at the hearing. It said the exposure lasted for up to a year.

Coupled with the usual denials and lies.....

Rejecting the accusations, Halliburton said the military's own records showed the water was suitable for non-drinking uses, and that there was no documented case of unusual illnesses or health problems from the site.

Mr Carter and another former KBR employee, Ken May, said they have suffered from persistent gastrointestinal problems and that many other people at the camp complained of diarrhoea and other health problems.

Goodbye, thanks for the cash

Here's a story that reminds me of an old saying about rats and sinking ships.

U.S. private contractors, until now the biggest private-sector employers in Iraq, are preparing to leave as U.S. money runs out and Iraqi ministries take charge of the reconstruction effort.

"We are drawing down," said Ken Oscar, Fluor Corp.'s vice president for strategy. "We are not done by any stretch of the imagination, but we are drawing down."

The engineering and construction giant at one time had 250 to 300 people from the United States in Iraq, and employed roughly 20,000 Iraqis.

Now, as the U.S.-funded part of the reconstruction effort comes to a close, Fluor has, perhaps, 100 Americans left in the country and is phasing out the Iraqi jobs.

"The net [result] is a lot less employment for Iraqis," Mr. Oscar said, even though much work remains to be done.

Blogging While Drunk - PJ Media Contributor "Atlas"

Caption competition

Unspinning Robert Spencer

A new addition to the blogroll....

Watching JihadWatch (Pointing out the hypocrisy and hate mongering of sites like JihadWatch.org.)

Well worth a read.

Christian on Hamas ticket

How will LGF'ers and all the other wingnuts on the web respond to the fact that there's a Christian candidate running on a Hamas ticket in the Palestinian elections? I'd say it's highly unlikely that LGF, Pajamas Media or any other of the frothing-at-the-mouth nutjobs will even report it.

Another day, another boycott.

It seems it's not only British teachers and Norwegian politicians that favour boycotting academia, Zionist organisations are getting in on the act as well.

Brandeis University — often regarded as America’s premier Jewish-sponsored institution of higher learning — is facing threats of a boycott from an organization once known as the standard-bearer of American Zionism.

The Zionist Organization of America issued a statement Tuesday calling on donors to rethink their financial support for Brandeis if the university fails to reconsider its appointment of Palestinian political scientist Khalil Shikaki. A well-known commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, Shikaki was recently made a senior fellow at the university’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

Via Jewschool & Forward

Settler Child Abuse

Courtesy of Richard Silverstein (Photo by Gil Yochanan)

Crossing the line? Dozens of Hebron and Kiriyat Arba children demonstrated outside police headquarters in Jerusalem Sunday, with some carrying signs of targets on their body and urging Police Chief Moshe Karadi to shoot them

The children and their "Karadi, shoot me" signs were in Jerusalem to demonstrate against the police’s handling of recent riots in Hebron.

Chances of this making a slideshow by Chuckles Johnson?

Buying democracy one party at a time

Here's news that will confuse every 'lizard' at LGF. How can you fight terrorism and pay for Yasser Arafat's former party to remain in power in the Palestinian Authority. Now it's understandable that both the US and Israel want to limit Hamas in the forthcoming elections. But how does a right-wing chickenhawk reconcile fighting Hamas by funding Fatah? They can't. It seems it's ok when Iraqis have democratic elections, but when it comes to the Palestinians the US Administration has to load the dice.

The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas.

The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work.

U.S. officials say their low profile is meant to ensure that the Palestinian Authority receives public credit for a collection of small, popular projects and events to be unveiled before Palestinians select their first parliament in a decade. Internal documents outlining the program describe the effort as "a temporary paradigm shift" in the way the aid agency operates. The plan was designed with the help of a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer who worked in postwar Afghanistan on democracy-building projects.

U.S. and Palestinian officials say they fear the election, scheduled for Wednesday, will result in a large Hamas presence in the 132-seat legislature. Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, is at war with Israel and is classified by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. But its reputation for competence and accountability in providing social services has made it a stiff rival of the secular Fatah movement, which runs the Palestinian Authority and has long been the largest party in the Palestinian territories.

The plan's $2 million budget, although a tiny fraction of USAID's work here, is likely more than what any Palestinian party will have spent by election day. A media consultant for Hamas said the organization would likely spend less than $1 million on its campaign.

Tomorrow's news today

Tomorrow "The Blogosphere" will erupt in jubilation over the news that Gretta Duisenberg is in hot water over some anti-Jewish comments she made on a Dutch TV show.

On Friday afternoon, Gretta Duisenberg was questioned by Amsterdam police over some controversial remarks she made on the TV program "The Black Sheep." She said the following about Jewish women: "They're not just taking over Palestinian lands, but also the restaurants in [the Amsterdam neighborhood of] Old-South." A number of people from the Jewish community filed complaints. It is not yet known whether Duisenberg will be subject to prosecution. According to Duisenberg, she made her remarks in the context of her experiences of often being approached in a threatening manner by political supporters of the Israeli cause.

You might well ask, who the hell is Gretta Duisenberg? She's the widow of a former president of the European Central Bank who is also a favorite hate figure of the right-wing élite because of her outspoken pro-Palestinian views.

Now she's inadvertently put the Europe-wide debate over "hate speech" (particularly speech aimed at members of specific religions) in an entirely new context. As "The Blogosphere" will be breathlessly reporting, any minute now...

We get mail

Reader A.M. writes:

You do a good job on your blog and I want to say how much I appreciate it.

Just wondering, when did Pajamas Media get established and when did they have funds available to push their propaganda in the blogosphere?

The reason I ask, is that there is this blogger, the "Religious Policeman" ( http://muttawa.blogspot.com/ ), whom claims he is a Saudi who is displeased with the state of affairs in his country and wishes to bring about reform and a dismantling of the Wahhabi religious institutions there through his writings and criticisms of the Saudi poltical and religious establishment.

Well, he is certainly a very talented and witty blogger who speaks impeccable English and seems to know the country, its culture and its people quite well.

Trouble is, there had been some questions and issues about him and his style that made me a bit uncomfortable.

I noticed that he uses the Saudi English press and MEMRI (the Israeli run mid-east media monitoring outfit) almost exclusively as his source material. If he is a Saudi, or even an Arab for that matter, why not use the Arabic press for his source material, its so much richer and contains much more of the type of stuff that would suit the purposes of his blog than the Saudi English media. I know this because I myself am a Saudi and read my press in both languages.

Then there was this matter of the Arab-Israeli conflict where he seemed to put all the blame on the Arabs and Muslims obsession with the "Jooos" as being the main impediment to a resolution of the conflict.

This person was blogging from two or three years back but for some reason stopped in mid 2004 then resumed blogging around mid 2005, a year later.

I came across some an interesting discussion that LGF readers were having about this guy in 2004 ( http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=10530 ) with many praising him (including Charles). But there was a point where the Religious Policeman (who goes by the name Alhamedi) motives and authenticity were questioned when he was asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and where he replied "a plague on both of their houses" for causing civilian deaths on both sides. He was taken to task for suggesting a "moral equivalence" between the Israeli and Palestinian violence.

Anyway, he was caught using another handle (Sol Rosenblum) as "virtual support" for his argument and was banned by Charles from posting in the blog for a while. Well he came back (thru another ISP I presume) and explained his position which practically backtracked from his earlier statements and therefore won back admiration from Charles and his followers.

BUT, at another point, he was called to prove that he really was a Saudi or an Arab and was asked about how to order coffee at a Lebanese restaurant. Well it was his response that proved to me beyond any doubt that he was not only NOT Saudi, but also a non-Arabic speaker. Read it in the link above where a real Arabic speaker corrects him but in which he responds with a totally lame and false explanation probably more designed to convince non-Arabic speakers that he was still legit. At this point, ANY Arab speaker knows he is a fraud.

I think that MAYBE (since he seems to have won the admiration of Charles), that Pajama Media may have asked him to resume blogging... and which he did a few months ago and that he may be getting paid for it.

Thats just a guess really, but as I said, this person is a FRAUD. No question on this as far as I and other Arab speakers are concerned. But is he getting paid to continue with his fraudulent blog or not? Or is he serving others like MEMRI to spread word on the "evils of Islamo-fascism" to an English reading audience? Well, its something that bugs me.

Us too.

Discuss.

Oatmeal

Best put-down of PJM:

many delightful brands of oatmeal-flavored oatmeal

From the post above this one, which recaps the sad, sordid history of Roger el-Simon's Little Open Green Source Media Pajamas.

What no LGF?

Scott over at Angry White Kid has an interesting piece about Blogs and anti-Arab hate in their comments sections. It's well worth a read, although I'm amazed that he didn't mention LGF (although by mentioning AAH, Jihad Watch, Omdurman and Israpundit he covers some of the worst) .

Read it all here Angry White Kid: Blogging Hate

Ask Pajamas Media

Crooked Timber have a quick Q&A session with those happy chappies at Pajamas Media. Worth a read, and the comments are good too.

Good news!

Are you an American citizen between the ages of 35 and 40? Do you love our country and our Leader, and do you want to help keep us safe from the twin scourges of Islamo-fascism and fascist Islamism? Have you ever driven past a recruitment office and sighed, "Golly, I wish I could join up, but I'm just too darn old"?

Well, have we ever got good news for you!

The US Army said Wednesday it has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 40 years old and is doubling signing up bonuses to a high of 40,000 dollars.

The measures are the latest in a series of steps the army has taken over the past year to offset a slump in recruiting as it faces ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The army failed to hit its recruiting goal of 80,000 new recruits in fiscal 2005. Recruiting figures have since improved but the the war in Iraq has made it difficult to meet the demand for fresh soldiers.

So what are you waiting for?? Annoy a liberal traitor -- join the Army today! And when you get to Iraq, don't forget to send a postcard to Rep. Murtha.

(This message is not brought to you by Little Green Pajamas Media Footballs, which has yet to mention this incredible opportunity for you to serve your country, or indeed to enlist any military advertisers. Why do they hate America?)

Smelling a rat

Pajamas Media Advisory Board member Michael Leeden (strangely his profile still says he's an advisory board member for the defunct OSM) has made some telling admissions to Raw Story.

A controversial neoconservative who occasionally consulted for the Bush Defense Department has confirmed that he was a contributor to the Italian magazine Panorama, whose reporter first came across forged documents which purported that Iraq was seeking to obtain uranium from Niger.

The bogus documents became the basis for the infamous sixteen words in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, in which he detailed his case for war. Their origin has been one of the most persistent mysteries in how American intelligence on Iraq was so wrong.

In an email to RAW STORY, occasional Bush foreign affairs advisor Michael Ledeen confirmed that he was, "several years ago," a regular contributor to Panorama. Leeden would not provide more specificity.

While most Americans have yet to hear of Ledeen or Panorama, the confirmation of his work with the publication adds yet another dimension to the Niger forgeries scandal and possible U.S. government involvement in pre-war intelligence manipulation.

Ledeen denies that he was involved in the Niger forgeries. He says he has no knowledge of the documents or how they came to be provided to the U.S. government.

[...]

The documents were later debunked as forgeries, though not before their content had been referenced in the President's State of the Union Address. Questions remain over whether the Administration knew they were forgeries, since it took the International Atomic Energy Agency just a few hours to discredit them in March 2003, shortly after which the U.S. invaded Iraq.

John Pike, director of the military watchdog GlobalSecurity.org, recently told RAW STORY the path of the documents from Italy to the White House is troubling.

"The thing that was so embarrassing about the episode was not simply that the documents were forgeries, but that they were clumsy forgeries, as was so quickly determined by the IAEA," Pike said. "It is one thing to be taken in, but to be so easily taken in suggests either bewildering incompetence or intentional deception, or possibly both."

While Ledeen admits to writing for Panorama, he explained that the work had been in the past, saying, "That would be a couple of years ago."

But "a couple of years ago" would be right around the time when the forgeries were delivered to Burba or sent from the U.S. embassy in Rome via backchannels to the U.S. State Department, bypassing the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

It's nice to look back on his Pajamas profile and ponder this quote again.

The exciting thing about Pajamas is that the blogosphere will, for the first time, come pre-filtered.

By whom, and for what reason is the question.

Wow! Just wow!

Pajamas Media must be really hot on the tails of the MSM with stories like this. Screams of....

Hold the front page! They've scooped us again!

....will reverberate around editorial rooms across the globe. Remember this kind of news was brought to you with $3.5 million dollars of someone else's money.

Quote unquote

Little Pajamas Green Media Footballs are normally among the very first to gloat whenever an outlet of the eeeeevil MSM gets egg on its collective face, but so far they've been mysteriously silent about CNN's latest embarrassment:

IRNA reported Monday that the Iranian government banned CNN journalists from working in the country after a translation error broadcast by CNN mistakenly quoted Iran's president as saying his nation has the right to build nuclear weapons.

CNN was not informed directly by the Iranian government that it was banned from the country.

The dispute arises from a moment of simultaneous translation Saturday.

As Ahmadinejad was speaking, an interpreter working for a translation company hired by CNN misquoted him as having said Iran has the right to build nuclear weapons. In fact, he said Iran has the right to nuclear energy, and that "a nation that has civilization does not need nuclear weapons." He added, "our nation does not need them."

We won't be a bit surprised if the erroneous soundbite "Iran has the right to build nuclear weapons" enters the lexicon of the right-wing élite, right alongside the persistent belief that President Clinton was responsible for Ruby Ridge (which occurred the summer before he was inaugurated).

Whiskey soaked former Trotskyist popinjay vs. President Chimp

It seems Charles is quite upset about ACLU and CAIR preparing lawsuits against President George W. Bush over the domestic spying controversy. Fair enough you may say, we all know Chuckie boy is a Republican propagandist. We just found it funny that one of his poster boys, Christopher Hitchens, is one of the people supporting the moves having been spied on himself.

Plaintiffs in the case believe their communications are being intercepted by the NSA and that the program is disrupting their ability to talk with sources, locate witnesses, conduct scholarship, and engage in advocacy, the ACLU said.

Plaintiffs include authors and journalists such as Christopher Hitchens and Tara McKelvey as well as James Bamford, a leading expert on U.S. intelligence and the National Security Agency.

Ignoring Pajamas

Has anyone else noticed that Marc Cooper who sits on the PJM Editorial Advisory Board doesn't link to Pajamas Media on his site and doesn't host their 'ads'? Isn't it strange that a man so closely connected to Pajamas Media also links to Truthdig and the Huffington Post? Who I would imagine constitute their competition.

Strange.

UPDATE: Marc Cooper writes: "i havent even noticed. my blog was recently redesigned and i havent had time to update the blogroll. i apparently pay much less attention to these things than you do."

There you go: all is well in Pajamaland.

UPDATE: Seems like Mr Corn still hasn't linked to Pajamas Media in his blogroll or put up one of their ads either. Could it be the 'progressives' at Pajamas are a little wary about advertising their links with the 'astroblogging' trainwreck that is PJM on their own sites? Or could it be more 'coding problems' and delayed tech support.

What's the point of all these 'flashy' ads and 'snazzy' logo's if your progressive 'yes' men don't display them?

UPDATE #2: Marc Cooper responds in the comments section below.

Where are the Iraqi billions?

Some Iraq Rebuilding Funds Go Untraced

I love the Wall Street Journal's headline, it suggests that 'some' money has gone missing. Like a couple of dollars here and there.........down the back of the couch I guess. The truth? Read the piece and prepare to be bewildered by how much money can be flushed down the toilet without so much of a whisper from the Bush Administration. Rebuilding Iraq? More like rebuilding someones bank account somewhere!

Saving Private Corn

Notice anything missing? Seems that David Corn is okay taking the money but not okay showing the ludicrous "Pajamas Media" logo on his website. We don't blame him, but it's really time he stopped playing Colmes to the Hannitys over there.

David Corn -- it's not too late! Come away from the Dark Side!

Stereotypes

A 'Lizard' writes......

58 zombie 1/15/2006 11:07AM PST

This really and truly gladdens my heart. This re-confirms what I've always suspected: that the Left sees LGFers and our cohorts as absolute ignorant inbred Neanderthals with bad teeth and loaded shotguns. And I want them to continue that misapprehension.

Yep, what a misapprehension?!

(hat tip DD for the last one)

The sexual habits of 'Lizards'

Mike Power questions the spare time activities and potency of the Lizardoids and their fellow war cheerleaders on the right.

I've always thought there was a sexual element to the support for this war in some quarters. So many fat, middle aged men who can't get it up anymore getting off on the whole 'shock and awe' thing only outnumbered by the weedy college students who spend all their spare time wanking, when not posting on the Little Green Footballs comments section. Who knows, if it hadn't been for vodka-driven flaccidity even Hitchens might not havebecome such an ardent war cheerleader.

Ouch!

Another dose of James Wolcott here, happily ripping Atlas Shrugs to little pieces. I almost feel sorry for the wailing right-wing banshee.

The New Intifada

Mobius at Jewschool comments on the recent events in Hebron.

They have donned yellow stars and given soldiers the Nazi salute. They have declared the State of Israel an illegal entity in the back pocket of the U.S. government. They have assaulted soldiers and attacked neighboring ethnic groups. They have most recently been placed under military curfew. Their gripe is their entitlement to the complete and total land of Palestine, from the river to the sea, as they have determined it in their fundamentalist interpretations of religious scripture.

These are not Palestinians, no. These are Jews. Jews resisting their eviction from Palestinian shops on formerly Jewish land which they have been occupying illegally.

He also comments on this incident, involving hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews hurling stones at Police because new residents are 'not religious enough'. You get the feeling if Muslims were rioting about the faith of their neighbours it would merit a mention on LGF.

Wingnut Welfare

It might seem like nit-picking to point out this typo at Pajamas Media, anyone can make a typo in a blog post (we've made a few here), but there's a difference. Most bloggers post as a labor of love (or rage) and have busy lives, jobs, other stuff to do. But imagine you were being paid to run your blog. Suppose someone gave you $3,500,000 to put together a spiffy blog with excellent graphics, editing and -- uh -- proofreading?

Really, this is just another indication the not-even-trying Pajamas Media is nothing more than a conduit for Wingnut Welfare. It's a sham. No real VCs would put up with the lazy, crappy mediocrity of Charles Johnson and Roger Simon's limp effort.

The real question: which tentacle of the Right Wing Media Machine funded Pajamas? And is it tax-payer money?

Charles holds up message board postings as evidence Islam is evil

Our esteemed reader FM writes:

Just letting you know about one thread currently up over at LGF. What they've done is, gone to a Muslim discussion forum, and taken a couple of posters extreme comments, then put them up on LGF. Obviously one post on one site being a reflection of what all evil Muslims think.

I thought this comment on LGF particularly interesting:

" #5 [] Chicken Kiev 1/16/2006 09:01AM PST


Wake up, world. The stuff that gets posted on ummah.com and similar web sites (and there are MANY) should be printed in every metro newspaper for all to see, should be put up on billboards above American freeways ... the people of the west should see this stuff, see what the other side is thinking and saying.

Please wake up and see the true face of our enemy. And hear the true sound of his voice. Know what he wants to do and who he wants to do it to. And screw your bullshit about how he's just like you and me and only wants peace.

Thank you, Charles, for posting this but it should be posted EVERYWHERE. In mile-high letters. Maybe we should start a campaign to send links to sites such as this to every moonbat we know. "

I wonder if the same couldn't apply to LGF, considering that I've seen and do see things ten times more inflammatory posted there, on a daily basis by a great many 'lizards'.

Just thought it was fairly hypocritical, in fact ridiculously so, for them to try and point out how bad Muslims are by selecting a couple of extremist statements.

And especially this Chicken Kiev joker's comment. Now THAT's funny. I could make up a 'flyer' or whatever just based on the crazy bullshit I've seen on LGF TODAY, let alone all the stuff you guys quoted from them on lgfwatch, and let alone again all the stuff I've seen in the whole time I've been reading it.

An Enemy That Lurks...

In the course of "normal" military affairs, the chain of command is well-defined. Field commanders have plenty of authority to order strikes and when a further sign-off is needed, it goes up the chain to the Secretary of Defense and ultimately to the C in C, Prince George. But this kind of authorization is formal and lacks the excitment craved by a "bring 'em on" type of guy.

With CIA operations, it's different. The CIA reports directly to the Prince and the Prince can ask for things unseemly otherwise. Like a direct video-feed from a Predator about to smite an enemy that lurks. And the ability to give the "git em" order directly to the operators. After all, where's the fun in being Preznit if you can't play Doom-For-Real? And hey, if it turns out it was just a bunch of villagers, their wimmin and some snot nosed kids, it's not like they were Merkins, was it?

#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.

Oy Gevalt! (It gets worse....)

Richard Silverstein has more on the JIBA. It seems there seems to be a political bias in certain categories, that there seems to be a vetting process by Aussie Dave against certain political sites and that there does seem to be a certain bias towards Pajamas Media blogs in the 'Mega Blogs' category. Keep up to date with the situation at Richard's blog. He seems to have hit a raw nerve with the JIBA's supporters.

UPDATE:

More on the controversy here, here and here.

If in doubt......smear!

The Bush Administration answer for everything. The Huffington Post has more on the Bush Administration's smear campaign against Congressman Murtha.

The Huffington Post has learned the Bush administration recently asked high ranking military leaders to denounce Congressman John Murtha. Congressman Murtha has called for the Bush Administration to withdraw US troops from Iraq.

The Bush Administration first attacked Rep. Murtha for his Iraq views by associating him with the filmmaker Michael Moore and Representative Jean Schmidt likened him to a coward on the floor of the House of Representatives. When those tactics backfired, Dick Cheney called Murtha "A good man, a marine, a patriot and he's taking a clear stand in an entirely legitimate discussion."

Though the White House has backed off publicly, administration officials have nevertheless recently made calls to military leaders to condemn the congressman. So far they have refused.

Read Congressman Murtha's response here.

What no news?

Can you imagine the coverage and the foaming at the mouth blabbering that would occur over at LGF if the following riot had been orchestrated and committed by Palestinians?

Scores of Jewish settlers rioted in Hebron in the West Bank this morning, wounding a soldier and torching a Palestinian house ahead of the implementation of evacuation orders for a market in the city.

Witnesses said more than 150 settlers clashed with Palestinians in the heart of Hebron after trying to occupy a Palestinian-owned house. The Israeli army said settlers then clashed with police and soldiers who tried to disperse them, lightly wounding one soldier.

"A large number of settlers tried to occupy a house belonging to the Jaber family, but the Palestinians confronted them," Abdel-Jaber Jaber, who is not from the family, said.

Witnesses said Palestinians and Israelis threw rocks at each other and when the soldiers arrived, settlers stoned them. They said the settlers then torched a Palestinian house.

The riots came amidst rising tensions ahead of an Israeli order to evict eight settler families from Palestinian-owned buildings in a market in the heart of the city.

Obviously, there hasn't been a peep from Charles or Pajamas Media.

What no update?

Strange that if you break a story with a dramatic headline like "Breaking: Al-Zawahiri Pushing Up Daisies?", you don't print an update later on the accuracy and truth behind the breaking news. Unless of course finding a positive spin on blowing up innocent civilians including women and four children is a little tricky. Even for experienced Bush apologists like Chuckles.

Self-answering question du jour

Why are there no Pajamas Media display ads on Pamela's blog?

Soiled Pajamas

Here, the paid-off "Jawa Report" gibbers and jives, putting it's paid-for spin on the slaughter of Pakistani villagers, men women and children blown apart by red hot steel and fragments of the modest houses they called home, victims of yet another "intelligence" blunder and the itchy trigger-finger of Prince George.

In place of the ads no-one is buying, a another paid-off shill has the gall to opine about biased narrative.

The money the cowardly titty-babies of Soiled Pajama Media greedily bank every month is blood money. And for the neo-con paymasters, money well spent.

The creeps at LGF

Steve Gilliard takes aim at the LGF'ers and Pajamanistas.

LGF is a collection of losers, the creepy guys at work, the people in the Star Trek club, the guys who can't get a date, even on Match.com. The ones that call themselves nice guys and talk about women as if the Handmaid's Tale was a liberal treatise, who worship at the alter of Kim Du Toit. They vent their anger online.

As a black guy, you learn to size these folks up quickly. They may whisper nigger under their breath, but when confronted, they run like little girls. You know they're punks.

Fumento, who was just busted by Scripps Howard for taking payola from Monsanto, is one of those guys. He talks sneeringly of Wolcott, knowing if Jim even looked at him hard, he'd piss his pants.

These guys are conflicted. They don't have any personal courage. They know they're suppsoed to, but they cringe at the idea of confrontation. But they create this image of machismo which makes people laugh.

Ever seen a Freeper rally? You could wet one with a few water balloons. No, Freeperland is for the frustrated Wal-Mart manager with the cheating wife and fat kids. He rails against the world. LGF is the junior loser version.

Instead of sucking up to the jocks, they want to suck up to people in power. So they worship Bush, not because they agree with him, but because they need that power in their powerless life. They feel stomped on by everyone, but they feel like big men online or in their little chickenhawk rallies.

They think liberals are these weed smoking 1960's rejects and who cringe at any possible physical confrontation. Come on, Ann Coulter cries when people toss shit at her, Goldberg? Stupid fat coward. If you slapped him in the face, he'd run like the punk bitch that he is. He's too goddamn stupid to avoid confronting Wolcott and Juan Cole and being humiliated in the process.

The women are even worse. Ann Althouse is comically foolish and gutless as well. Malkin, besides being a racist, has been accused of having her husband write her incomprenshible columns. Atlas Shrugged, besides rubbing her tits on losers like Glenn Reynolds, also writes badly and filled with hate. You know, I don't like Muslim terrorists either, but I certainly don't want to kill a bunch of kids to make me feel better.

LaShawn Barber? I feel for her. The boys at Ass Clown Media totally disrespected her, and she still thinks she's part of the team. Sure, if they need a maid. Look, you can be black and a Christian, but once you join their side, they will treat you like vermin.

Then there is the group I called the shit scared cowards, Dennis Miller, Roger L. Simon, Tammy Bruce. They were liberals when it was cool, then switched teams, thinking that would be cool. Their reason, fear of a brown planet. Only problem, it wasn't cool, and their former friends now mock them. They have to embrace the failed president and his reactionary ideas because there is nowhere else to go. They bluster, but will not confront liberals because they can't.

They shake and bluster and run their mouths, but that's it.

Read it all. Between Steve and James Wolcott, there's been a lot of anti-Wingnut ranting lately, and that's a good thing.

Oy Gevalt (again)!

Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam, takes a good look at the political bias of the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards. It's well worth a read, the wingnuts will hate it (perhaps they'll accuse him of anti-Semitism again...).

Mondo weirdo

Little Green Media Football Pajamas is busily promoting the unfortunately-named* "American Film Renaissance, a conservative film festival whose stated mission is to promote "films that reflect free speech, free enterprise, rugged individualism, freedom of religion and the triumph of the human spirit. "

In other words, it's PAX-TV and the Family Channel rolled together, with an extra-large dollop of anti-liberal invective. Its list of speakers and featured presenters is a veritable rogue's gallery of the right-wing victimocracy.

All of which nicely dovetails with Michael Bérubé's theory about what makes wingnuts, and what makes them tick. Charles Johnson might have been a reasonable man once upon a time, but on September 11, 2001, he switched operating systems and is now running the very latest version of Wingnut 2006.

* Because conservatives who yearn for mainstream acceptance ought to be really, really careful about juxtaposing the words "American" and "Renaissance."

CHARLES DOESN'T GET IT

This entry on LGF is breathtaking in its stupidity:

Israel’s acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told President Bush that there can be no progress toward peace with Hamas in the Palestinian government.

And this prompted Agence France Presse to issue our mainstream media howler of the day:

Israel and the United States both regard Hamas, responsible for the majority of attacks during a five-year Palestinian uprising, as a terrorist organisation despite its embrace of the democratic process.

Charles apparently can't begin to grasp how this AFP article points out a profound mistake in Pres. Fredo's grand "strategery" for the Middle East. There has never been any likelihood, let alone a guarantee, that democracy will change Arab opinion of either Israel or the U. S. As one soldier put it in Stars and Stripes,

There are two things they hate most in this part of the world. The first is Jews, and the second is the West. America is the poster child of the West. How can you liberate that? You can’t.