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

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

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!

"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.

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

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...

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...).

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.

Sun Sharia

You couldn't make it up: Britain's best-selling newspaper, the Sun, is using a Muslim columnist to push its agenda of bringing back the death penalty (sorry, no archive link: they make you pay for those).

Naturally the target of Anila Baig's fury is an easy one (a pedophile), and few Sun readers are likely to notice the incongruety of a newspaper which condemns Abu Hamza's incitement to murder (infidels) publishing articles inciting murder (of pedophiles).

Now that the Sun has found someone to preach koranic 'a life for a life' justice, will the paper we recommending that footballers' wives found in flagranti with the plumber get stoned too?

Michael Totten's got the guts, why not Charles Johnson?

Michael Totten of the Middle East Journal blog is going to northern Iraq, to see for himself what it's like over there. Good on him, we say.

Now how about that other Iraq enthusiast, Charles Johnson of Littlegreenfootballs.com, moves his backside to Baghdad as well: we're sure it would do him a world of good to be able to see firsthand how the reconstruction of Iraq is going. Not to mention the street cred he'd get if he were to cycle once through Sadr City with an LGF t-shirt on....

Want this Badge on your Site?

(latest supporter: Frankspace)

Oy Gevalt (reprise)!

Jesus' General in his usual swaggering style takes on the Jewish & Israeli Blog Awards, and is equally disgusted as us with the appearance of LGF and Cox & Forkum in their line up.

In a comment on one of my previous posts, Ed Marshall asks, "How exactly did
Charles Johnson get into a best "Jewish or Israeli" blog contest anyway?" It's a
good question. After all the publisher of Little Green Footballs is about as
Jewish as a Wyoming honky tonk, yet not only is he up for awards in two
categories, he's a past winner.

Chuck isn't the only American gentile in
the mix. John Cox and Allen Forkum of Cox and Forkum--goyim so goyish they think
a knish is an effeminate basketball player--are in the running for two awards as
well.

So how does a trio of gentiles get nominated for (and in Chuck's
case, win) a best "Jewish and Israeli" blog award. Well from what I can see,
being either Jewish or Israeli isn't as important being politically in line with
about ten percent of the Jews in the United States. That is to say you must
possess an almost genocidal desire to protect Israel. I'll admit that 10 percent
is a guess, but I think it's a good one. While most Jews support Israel, I doubt
that more than 10 percent would consider genocide or ethnic cleansing as
desirable methods for achieving security. Even the General won't go that far.
From what I've seen at the JIB nominated websites, the majority of the nominees
are eager to collectively punish brown people as viciously as possible. That
might not be in line with the thinking of most Jews, but I guess that isn't the
point of these awards.

Pajamas Media Starlet Plagiarism Shocker!

Is Michelle Malkin, plagiarist? Well plagiarism is the accusation made by John Lombard, and he makes an excellent point. Is this the standard that Pajamas Media is setting? Is this what'll be the end of the dreaded 'MSM'? Copying it to death?

Quote of the week

When they open the Hack Hall of Fame, Roger L. Simon gets in on the first ballot.

alicublog nails it

Pajamas Media Commentators On Hajj Deaths

The self-styled "Lizardoid Minions" of Pajamas Media's "Little Green Footballs" rejoice over trampling deaths of 345 pilgrims to Mecca:

knotboy 1/12/2006 08:36AM PST
Does this mean Allah is mad at them?

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"

JammieWearingFool

I had 375 in the over/under pool. Guess I lost.
I have 10,000 in my pool. I'm still waiting...

mbruce 1/12/2006 08:42AM PST
it's sort of like a virus or rats in the sewers.

John B 1/12/2006 08:43AM PST
For someone following the "Religion of Peace" this must be like the annual running of the bulls in Spain (or Andalus as some would call it).

Can 345 people share a Darwin award?

Joe Vaffanculo 1/12/2006 08:46AM PST
What's 345 times 72? Dat's a latta virgins!

JammieWearingFool 1/12/2006 08:50AM PST
As they say in the land of hajj: season's beatings!

jeremybi 1/12/2006 08:51AM PST
Let's go for the record:
In 1990, there were 1,426 killed.

locutus

What's 1.2 billion - 1 or 2 = ?

bendover 1/12/2006 08:59AM PST
ROPers gotta love em. I'm sure the survivors are down , but hay you still got next year


Maine's Michael 1/12/2006 09:03AM PST
I love old-time religion. Give us more.

steveg 1/12/2006 09:06AM PST
Good God.... savages!

Poitiers-Lepanto 1/12/2006 09:06AM PST
An idea:
should we buy tickets for the muslims and help them to go to the haj ?

we should

MarcusAurelius 1/12/2006 09:13AM PST
If they just franchise those stone pillars they could thin out the crowds. Am I missing something here?

goodbye_natalie 1/12/2006 09:18AM PST
A newer version of the Mohammed Mosh Pit?

hepcat 1/12/2006 09:31AM PST
Someone yelled "there's a pig loose" and all hell broke out.

Sol Roth 1/12/2006 09:46AM PST
Win-Win situation. Sadly though, on too-small-a scale.

Mr. Pulpo 1/12/2006 10:02AM PST
Is this a new record?

beavereater 1/12/2006 10:15AM PST
Benny Goodman played that number.

Stompin' At The Hajj
Hajj, the home of sweet romance,
Hajj, it wins you with a glance,
Hajj, gives happy feet a chance to dance.
Your form just like a clinging vine,
Your lips so warm and sweet as wine,
Your cheek so soft and close to mine, divine.
How my heart is singing, while the herd is swing ing,
Never tired of romping, and stomping on you at the Hajj.
What joy! A perfect holy day,
Hajj, let me stomp a way on you.

Locrian 1/12/2006 10:20AM PST
Ha Ha Ha
Ha Ha Ha Ha

Lizard by the Bay 1/12/2006 10:21AM PST
I just had a great idea. Let's nuke Mecca, and claim we're doing it for humanitarian reasons to prevent further loss of Muslim lives.

'Nam Grunt 1/12/2006 11:11AM PST
Oh My! Savages killed each other, so what! They do it everyday to innocents that's their 'THANG'!

Tumulus11 1/12/2006 11:11AM PST
. After the traditional Stoning of the Devil comes the time-honored Crushing of the Pilgrims.

'Nam Grunt 1/12/2006 12:40PM PST
My money is on our Brave Troops that are eradicating this scourge on humanity!

CowardKerry 1/12/2006 02:47PM PST
I told allah this would happen, they need more E-ticket rides at Mecca World.

EricOF 1/12/2006 03:11PM PST
What do you call 345 Muslims trampled to death in Mecca? A good start.

Please send this link to any advertisers on Pajamas Media websites. They should know what a rank cesspit they are funding.

James Wolcott tears Fumento, Pajamas Media and Wenig Grüne Faschisten to pieces

Read it all and chuckle at the rightwing warbloggers and their apologists nonsense. The man's on fire and lands all of his punches.

James Wolcott: Noxious Fumes

PS Fumento may think it's old hat to compare people to Nazis. We think it's apt considering the type of bile that spews out of LGF on a daily basis (check out their reaction to the Hajj stampede), hence the title of this post.

Pajamas hooked on the MSM

Pajamas Media is currently "reporting" on the Hajj Stampede and claims that Balanced News Blog was the first to 'report' the story on the blogosphere. That may well be true, but does 'reporting' consist four sentences with links to MSNBC who BNB correctly credits as the source, and also Reuters, Al-Arabiya and the BBC.

Schadenfreude

Who's to blame now Pat?

Israel is pulling out of a $50 million deal with US TV evangelist Pat Robertson after he said Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution.
Tourism Ministry spokesman Ido Hartuv said Israel would not sign a contract with Mr Robertson to build a biblical theme park by the Sea of Galilee.

Mr Robertson suggested on his popular TV show the stroke was a punishment for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

His remarks were condemned by the US government and American Jewish groups.

Paying the warbloggers to sing...

More and more evidence of the US military and its propaganda missions are coming out. Bloggers are now being offered filthy lucre to shill like crazy about the war.

The U.S. Army is giving "exclusive content" to pro-war bloggers through a propaganda company funded by American tax dollars.

The Washington Post's national security columnist reported the shameful news today.

The goal of the Army's propaganda is to obscure the horrible truth of the Iraq occupation, the propaganda company admitted in an e-mail to unquestioning supporters of the endless war.

No longer able to control the usually corrupt Washington press corps, the Bush administration has been repeatedly caught creating fake newscasts and fake news agencies while bribing "independent" journalists to repeat the government's lies. And each month brings new evidence that dozens of "real" journalists and TV news personalities are involved in a massive cover-up scheme to protect themselves as they protect criminal figures such as "Scooter" Libby and Dick Cheney.

With the U.S. public overwhelmingly against the government's wars abroad and against Americans at home, mainstream news outlets have slowly begun to report the truth.

New propaganda efforts such as the Army's blogging scheme are the latest attempts to dilute actual reporting on the scandals and failures of the federal government. With so many Americans now seeing blogs mixed in with online news, the Pentagon hopes to confuse citizens.

Not surprisingly, the pro-Bush bloggers are thrilled at the opportunity to act like the state-controlled media of the Soviet Union.

Now, there's a good name for Pajamas Media....PRAVDA MEDIA!

Via Sploid.com

Flag burning

Burning the US flag doesn't go down well on LGF: basically, it's a sign that you're an evil, traitorous moonbat.

But burning a menorah flag? Ach, LGF couldn't give a damn. After all, there is no anti-Semitism in America...

Abramoff's sleaze and Israeli Settler Movement

Michael Isikoff dishes the dirt on sleazy money and its destination and uses.

"More than $140,000 of foundation funds were actually sent to the Israeli West Bank where they were used by a Jewish settler to mobilize against the Palestinian uprising. Among the expenditures: purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager, and other material described in foundation records as 'security' equipment. The FBI, sources tell Newsweek, is now examining these payments as part of a larger investigation to determine if Abramoff defrauded his Indian tribe clients."

Jason Raimondo adds...

The fraudulently obtained money funded a paramilitary outfit based in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, a large community annexed after the '67 war and the site of renewed building in open violation of the American-sponsored "road map." The conduit for the money was one Schmuel Ben-Zvi, an old buddy of Abramoff's who, like so many Americans, was recruited into the rabidly expansionist Israeli "settler" movement. A series of e-mails between Ben-Zvi and Abramoff illustrate the agenda that energized and inspired the Abramoff crime family. While Newsweek reports Ben-Zvi "heatedly denied" that he had any connection to Abramoff, other than being a high school bud from Abramoff's Hollywood days, the e-mails, featured as exhibits in a Senate Indian Affairs committee hearing, tell a different story. In a missive of thanks from Ben-Zvi to Abramoff, the former writes:

"I feel like the tank commanders in the Yom Kippur war, who when hearing over the radio that reinforcements were coming, felt so great that they raised their seats higher out of the tank hatch and went forward."

Abramoff replied: "If only there were another dozen of you the dirty rats would be finished."

The "dirty rats" are Palestinians: according to fanatical Zionist ideologues like Abramoff, Ben-Zvi, and the "Christian" dispensationalists who make up the activist wing of the neoconized Republican Party – e.g., Abramoff associate and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed – the Palestinian people are a subhuman species who must be ethnically cleansed from the Biblically defined land of Israel. Greed greased the wheels of the Abramoff money machine, but ideology played a role, too. It is characteristic of the neoconservatives that they often manage to combine their policy proposals with profit-making activities that invariably accrue to their own accounts

Chances of Chuckles covering the funding of extremist Zionist paramilitaries? Slim to non existent.

Missing news

Juan Cole reports on a story that seems to be missed by LGF/PJM and every other GOP mouthpiece out there.

Iran is constructing electricity transmission lines into Iraq in preparation for selling the latter country electricity. Those terrible Iranians! How dare they be helpful this way? It will confuse President Bush. Aren't they supposed to be in the Axis?

Oy Gevalt!

It's that time of year again. Israellycool and The Jerusalem Post have drawn up candidates for Best Jewish & Israeli Blog Awards. There are many we'd like to promote. The excellent Jewschool, Orthodox Anarchist, Dov Bear and Jewlicious.

Unfortunately the shortlist for the 'Mega' blogs category is...how do you say? Disappointing.

* Cox & Forkum
* Little Green Footballs
* Power Line
* Protein Wisdom
* Roger L. Simon
* Winds of Change

Now, no offense to Winds of Change, which can be interesting....but the rest? C'mon. Does the Muslim baiting doodling of Cox and Forkum constitute 'Mega'? Does the piss poor 'copy and paste the MSM' and add three lines of comment of Chuckles constitute a 'Mega' blog?

Are Bloggers the New Punks?

Blogging!

That's the question asked by RJ Eskow over at the Huffington Post. If blogging is the new Punk movement, does that make Pajamas Media the Emerson Lake and Palmer of our time?


Pajamas Media!

The season of peace and goodwill

"Merry Christmas son, here's some body armor"

A New York City mother says she spent about $3,000 for body armor -- a Christmas gift for her son in the U.S. Marines who is deployed to Iraq.

Elaine Brower said her son, James Brower, gave her a list of items Marine buddies gave him, to buy body armor online.

James Brower had been deployed to Afghanistan, but when he returned he became a New York City police officer. Now, he has been redeployed as a reserve to Iraq and when his mom asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said "body armor."

Elaine Brower made the purchases online for $2,200. Then she spent $800 for armor for her son's legs, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

James Brower had assisted Marines and soldiers who had lost limbs in Iraq at the New York City Marathon and they suggested leg armor -- especially to protect the femoral artery.

The son says everything fits and is comfortable and mom is set to make an Internal Revenue Service claim of up to $1,100 -- thanks to a recently enacted: "Claim for Reimbursement and Payment Voucher for Privately Purchased Protective, Safety or Health Equipment Used in Combat.

When is an extremist not an extremist?

When Chuckles decides to ignore them.

Here are some Middle East extremists Charles Johnson will never mention.

Ghouls and curses

The chap in the picture is a particularly religious Israeli delighting in the news of Sharon's illness - and inviting the media into his workshop to show them just how happy he is.

Meanwhile, some orthodox opponents of Sharon are claiming to have invoked a curse on him for pulling out of Gaza:

Rabbi says God will punish Sharon

One of Israel's senior rabbis has caused outrage by apparently calling on God to "strike down" Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a sermon.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual mentor of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, invoked the curse over Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

"Let God strike him down... he is torturing the people of Israel," Mr Yosef is reported as saying.

Mr Sharon has been courting Shas in an attempt to pass his disengagement plan.

The party's 11 votes could be crucial when the proposals are put before parliament.

But Mr Yosef has rejected the idea of putting the plan to Israelis in a referendum.

"The Holy One wants us all to return to the Torah, and then he will strike him with one blow and he will die. He will sleep and never wake up," he was reported as saying in an apparent reference to Mr Sharon.

A colleague insisted the rabbi was objecting to the disengagement, and had no intention that the prime minister should be harmed.

But several legislators have demanded he be investigated for incitement.

"He hates Israel, hates the Arabs, incites and calls on heaven to strike down the prime minister, it is unbelievable," said Ronny Brizon, an MP from the secular Shinui Party.

However, the attorney general has reportedly decided not to launch an investigation against Mr Yosef because he was expressing "hope" rather than a call for action.

"There is no clear, operative instruction to his listeners, and thus there is apparently no grounds for an investigation," a senior justice ministry official is quoted as saying. (BBC News)

Now that CJ has given the definitive verdict on Pat Robertson's little slip viz Sharon, we expect he'll be doing the same for those who want Sharon dead because he attempted some sort of peace with the Palestinians...

Laugh out loud quote

Roger L. Simon (Mystery writer......as in, who the hell is he?), on the new Google video project.

Like most "mission statements" this is crafted to make a mega-multinational sound like some pleasant global charity

I really don't think good 'ol Rog is in a position to comment. Considering Pajamas Media's lack of mission statement and lack of focus from the birth of their bland, copyist, soul-less venture.

PS if there's anybody looking for a news/blogging/link site that is allegedly far better than PJM, word is newsvine.com is going to be a big player.

Fisking Charles Johnson

Oh boy, what a blooper! Charlie J headlines one of his latest posts 'Pope Benedict on Islam and the West'. Really? As CJ admits but most of his minions completely fail to realize, the words quoted are not the pope's, they belong to Father Joseph Fessio, the Domino's Pizza-funded conservative Jesuit who holds the strings to the Ignatius Press publishing empire. As you can imagine, it doesn't hurt to keep the publicity mill running if you've got books to sell...

So anyway, this hearsay about what the pope thinks of Islam (frankly dears, we couldn't give a damn), chimes with what the lizards think about Islam, at least to the extent that both believe Islam can't undergo Reformation because it regards the Koran as the true and unchangeable word of God...hold on a minute!

It's a bit rich for Catholics, particularly those of the conservative bent, to speak of the Reformation in such glowing terms. After all, the Reformation was what split the Catholic Church in half once more, spawning the Protestant movement which did away with a lot of the old dogma. Now this ex-hippy Jesuit comes along and says Catholicism underwent a Reformation? That's a bit like saying Communism underwent a Perestroika and that's why it's such a vibrant, modern, forward-looking kind of ideology. Reformation worked for those who left the Catholic Church, it didn't do much for Catholicism until the mid-20th century, when Vatican II finally caught up with the rest of the world.

As for Catholicism not being lumbered with that old 'word of God' business: what do you think the pope's mumblings are regarded as? Hallmark Greetings? He's God's envoy on earth, and what he says goes, got that? If old Ratzinger, bless his Hitler Jugend socks, decided that, say, God prefers you to die than to wear a piece of latex over your wiener to protect yourself from HIV, YOU'VE GOT TO OBEY. There are no two ways about it. There's no 'interpretation', no faffing about with 'dialectic'. His word goes.

So much for divine inspiration.

Anyhow, the lizards obviously skirt the theological implications of this little discussion and get stuck right into the practical side of things, such as: when do we nuke the Muslim world?

Charming.

How stupid can one bigoted propagandist be? Not as stupid as two together.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18787_Dhimmitude_in_the_UK&only

Check this out for a prime example of Chuckles the clown's bigotry dwarfing his journalistic skills.

A British gay advocacy group that dared to speak out against the Dark Ages hatred of radical Islam has been attacked

No Charles, it was criticised for the language it used to criticise Islam as a whole, not radical Islam. It also used similar language to criticise Christianity and Orthodox Judaism (Why no mention Charles?).

by other gay rights groups, with the aid of the Orwellian “London-wide Race Hate Crime Forum”—and forced to issue groveling apologies.

For an Orwellian organisation the LRHCM seems surprisingly open and democratic.

The Forums meetings are open to the Public and all interested parties are welcome to attend. For a list of meeting dates, venues and proposed presentations please follow the link below.

...anyway, back to Chuckles the clown.

Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities has a few words of wisdom on the latest example of Dhimmitude in the UK: I Lost My Head Over Islam.

Nope, not even close. Jeff merely points to the same idiotic points that you copied off him. Except he didn't feel the need to add the word 'radical' before the world 'Islam'. He also failed to mention the GLHA's stance on Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. He also called the LRHCM 'sinister', even though as the body formed in response to the Stephen Lawrence enquiry, they're hardly unknown or shadowy. As for 'words of wisdom'....

In this case, hatred is an appropriate response, & should be encouraged.

...I think Confucious is still quite secure in the fortune cookie market.