Jury Awards Marine's Dad $2.9 Million From Phelps Hate Cult

Best news I've seen all day. A jury has awarded $2.9 million* in compensatory damages to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq from the vile Westboro Baptist "Church." Punitive damages are yet to be determined:

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., the father of a Westminster Marine who was killed in Iraq, today won his case in a Baltimore federal court against members of Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who protested at his son's funeral last year.

This is the Westboro folks in action:




Update: Blue Crab Boulevard links to this AP story reporting that the punitive damages are...$8 million. Unfortunately:

Even the size of the award for compensating damages "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," according to financial statements filed with the court, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted.

Maybe they can work it off in Hell.

*I'd like to thank commenter Jim for pointing out that I had made an editing error when I first posted this, leaving the word "been" in the hyperlink. I changed the phrasing of the post while editing and forgot to change the wording in the link. Jim has performed his duty above and beyond what the average Greenwaldian douche would do, reaching new heights of pettiness and snot content, while having the courage to completely ignore the important and wonderful news in the post itself. Thank you so much, Jim. America needs more people like you.

Via memeorandum.

DC Media Rumormill: Juicy Political Sex Scandal

Ron Rosenbaum titillates with a juicy political sex scandal that "everyone knows" the LA Times is sitting on:

So I was down in DC this past weekend and happened to run into a well-connected media person, who told me flatly, unequivocally that “everyone knows” The LA Times was sitting on a story, all wrapped up and ready to go about what is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate. “Everyone knows” meaning everyone in the DC mainstream media political reporting world. “Sitting on it” because the paper couldn’t decide the complex ethics of whether and when to run it. The way I heard it they’d had it for a while but don’t know what to do. The person who told me )not an LAT person) knows I write and didn’t say “don’t write about this”.

So, it must be about a Democrat, right, because the MSM kept their finger in the dike for Slick Willy as long as they could? Maybe, and maybe not.

Maybe the subject is a Republican and the elite journos are hoping he wins the nomination. Then, BOOM, we have another October surprise similar to what our unbiased media pulled on Dubya...twice.

Yemen's Deal With the Devil

Jane Novak is an internationally recognized expert on Yemen, site of the USS Cole attack, and a Jawa Report co-blogger. This is her latest article on the terrorist enablers ruling that country.

Excerpt:

Yemeni President Saleh says openly that he has a truce with al Qaeda. However, it's more than a truce; it's a mutual support pact. That pact is long standing, mutually beneficial, and responsible for much of the carnage around the world, including the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Read the rest.

Further Correspondence With Glenn Greenwald

I thought it would be nice to clear the air, and give Glenn a chance to deny any role in the creation of the alleged Boylan email:

From: The Dread Pundit Bluto
To: Glenn Greenwald
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:52 PM

Glenn,

All fun and kidding aside (and this has been fun, at least for me), do you, for the record, categorically deny creating, causing to be created, or encouraging the creation of the alleged Boylan email?

If you do deny it, do you have any knowledge or evidence that would point to its creation by a third party, or any hitherto undisclosed direct, non-conjectural evidence that Colonel Boylan himself created the email?

Et maintenant, au revoir,

Al Brown
The Dread Pundit Bluto
The Jawa Report
Stop the ACLU

Glen's response was, while definitely not unsolicited, perhaps a tad bizarre:

From: ggreenwald@salon.com
To: dreadpundit@hotmail.com
Subject: Re:
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:56:06 -0300

I had nothing to do with writing that email, including writing, sending it, encouraging its creation or anyone else. And I have no knowledge of anyone who did, if Col. Boylan didn't.

If you don't believe me, I have a good idea - either you, or any of your genius comrades, can bet me $5,000 (or any other higher amount) that the email is on my laptop, in orginal form, sent with all of the header information that I published.

It's easy to make accusations, or cast innuendo (or cheerlead for wars) when there are no consequences to the person.

Maybe I shouldn't have used French; Glenn may be a little touchy on the subject:

From: The Dread Pundit Bluto
To: Glenn Greenwald
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:23 PM
Subject: RE:

I regret that you took my inquiry as an accusation, but it seemed to me that, on this point at least, it was best to have an unequivocal denial. I haven't seen a shred of evidence or conjecture indicating that the email made a pitstop in Brazil, and don't really understand the purpose of your offered bet.

One thing should be made clear to you. I will not "cheerlead" a war for its own sake, but I will unashamedly "cheerlead" for those who put themselves in harm's way. I will also condemn those who willfully endanger our military members through leaking and publishing classified materials (I'm thinking specifically of the NYT, here, and their jihadi-friendly body armor diagrams).

If that upsets you, or seems gauche, too bad, deal with it.

Al Brown
The Dread Pundit Bluto
The Jawa Report
Stop the ACLU

And that elicited:

From: Glenn Greenwald (ggreenwald@salon.com)
Sent: Tue 10/30/07 12:28 PM
To: The Dread Pundit Bluto (dreadpundit@hotmail.com)
All right. Fair enough. You didn't accuse me, though either you or someone at one of those blogs with which you're affiliated linked to a blogger yesterday who did.

You don't have a monopoly on supporting the troops. I know a lot of people who vigorously oppose the war in Iraq and not a single one of them direct any of their anger about the war or opposition to it at the soliders, including me. Even soliders who fight in unjust wars are typically honorable and brave.

I'll take Glen at his word that he doesn't know anyone like these assholes.

Previous email exchange with Glenn.

Furthering the Agenda, Part MMMCCLXVIII

About those 20 headless bodies...

From Gateway Pundit via little green footballs:

(Tuesday AM) I just spoke with Maj. Winfield Danielson with MNF-Iraq. After investigating the "20 headless bodies" story, Multi-National Force Iraq has no record that this incident took place yesterday near Baquba (Bakubah).
There is no evidence to back up the story.
Maj. Winfield Danielson gave permission to quote MNF-I.
The story is not accurate.

DeCapigate, the original.

Furthering the Agenda, Part MMMCCLXVII

James Taranto busts two paragons of the journalistic community for their utter dishonesty.

The New York Times reports:

The Department of Defense has identified 3,825 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans on Tuesday:

CAMACHO, Anamarie Sannicolas, 20, Seaman, Navy; Panama City, Fla.; Naval Support Activity.

GRESHAM, Genesia Mattril, 19, Seaman, Navy; Lithonia, Ga.; Naval Support Activity.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports

As of Tuesday, at least 3,836 members of the U.S. military had died in Iraq since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The latest deaths reported by the military:

Camacho, Anamarie, S., 20, Navy Seaman, Panama City, Fla.

Gresham, Genesia, M., 19, Navy Seaman, Lithonia, Ga.

The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle do not mention this report, from the Gulf Daily News:

Anamarie Sannicolas Camacho, 20, and her colleague Genesia Mattril Gresham, 19, were shot dead at the Naval Support Activity Base, Juffair, at around 5am on October 22.

Their alleged killer, fellow serviceman Clarence Jackson, 20, is still clinging to life after apparently shooting himself in the head immediately after the murders.

Agenda Journalism 101

If it doesn't fit the agenda it isn't really happening.

More Bad News For the Left

From the Associated Press:

BAGHDAD - The monthly toll of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq is on track to being the lowest in nearly two years, with at least 34 troop deaths recorded as of Tuesday...

But, there might be a silver lining for those whose political hopes rest with failure:

... but the military cautioned it's too early to declare a long-term trend.

Now, to those who say this sounds like I'm questioning your patriotism; I am.


Thanks to commenter Mook for the original picture link.

Here are some more images from Zombietime demonstrating the shining patriotic support for our troops that characterizes the Left.

Channeling That Greenwald Pettiness

Does Glenn Greenwald read The Dread Pundit Bluto?

Why, sure he does. He just doesn't give poor, harmless, little Bluto credit for correcting his execrable French. After I helpfully pointed out here that Glenn meant to write "du jour" instead of "de jour" in his diatribe, he corrected his post and the cochon didn't even thank me!


Of course it could be just a coincidence. Perhaps, after a couple hundred times getting it wrong a light went on.

Was the Greenwald Email a Hack?

Bithead thinks it was.

Glenn Greenwald Responds Again

And tries to move the goalposts, a favorite tactic on the Left:

Now that he has cleverly obtained from me what he thinks is previously secret evidence (i.e., the full, unedited Boylan e-mail which I published myself yesterday), Dread Pundit has written a dramatic post accusing me of concealing parts of Col. Boylan's email. And that's not all. Also: "The parts that Greenwald chose not to publish tend to contradict his characterization of the email as 'bizarre' and 'unsolicited'." He has titled his post: "Full Text of Email Reveals Greenwald Mischaracterizations," and he re-prints the entire e-mail which I sent to him, bolding the parts he says I "chose to leave out." Very dramatic.

Oh no! Snippy McSockpuppet is reading my thoughts!

Except, he isn't, as the first paragraph of my post notes:

Glenn Greenwald, as he had promised in his post at Salon, has forwarded the email he says he received from Colonel Steven A. Boylan, Public Affairs Officer for General Petraeus.

Glenn has decided to pretend that I accused him of concealing the full, alleged Boylan email. I did not. What I pointed out is that Greenwald used creative redaction to build up a strawman for himself to confront, while knowing that most of his readers would never bother to follow the external link to the full email.

Meanwhile, Glenn's defenders are having a difficult time following their train of thought from one paragraph to the next, specifically this passage:

The parts that Greenwald chose not to publish tend to contradict his characterization of the email as "bizarre" and "unsolicited".

"Publish" refers to the Salon article, not the external link to Greenwald's blog. If any lefties are still confused, simply mumble "...in the Salon post..." quietly to yourself.

Apparently, this concept stumped Greenwald as well, or, what is more likely, he is pretending that it has in order to avoid responding to the charge that he deliberately mischaracterized parts of the original email, allegedly from Colonel Boylan.

Update: The Bookworm agrees, and finds le mot juste for Greenwald's particular form of mummery: "dowdification."

Hint for Glenn: it's "du jour," not "de jour." Your minions seem to be highly concerned with that sort of error.

Glenn Greenwald Responds

I seem to be the target of some testy, and rather rude and unprofessional, emails from someone using Glenn Greenwald's Salon email account:

From: ggreenwald@salon.com
To: dreadpundit@hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:56:36 -0300

I'm asking this in all sincerity - do you know how to read? The VERY FIRST LINE of my post says:
I received this morning an unsolicited email from Col. Steven A. Boylan, the Public Affairs Officer and personal spokesman for Gen. David G. Petraeus (see UPDATE III below). The subject line of the email -- which I am publishing in full, unedited form here --

The link to "full, unedited form" goes here, where the email, in its unedited ENTIRETY, is published:

http://utdocuments.blogspot.com/2007/10/unsolicited-email-from-col-stephen.html

The parts I published in the original post were mere exceprts, I made explicitly clear:
In terms of whether the U.S. Army under Petraeus and Boylan is, in fact, becoming a political actor, I'll let multiple passages from Boylan's email to me this morning speak for itself:

Can you comprehend this?

Glenn Greenwald

To which I responded:

From: The Dread Pundit Bluto
To: Glenn Greenwald
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 2:16 PM
Subject: RE:

Absolutely! I just thought the full, unedited email deserved more prominent mention than the short shrift it got in Salon.

Cheers,

Bluto

Which response does not seem to have given my correspondent satisfaction:

From: ggreenwald@salon.com
To: dreadpundit@hotmail.com
Subject: Re:
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:19:22 -0300

Right - except that isn't what you said. You didn't even mention that I did post the full, unedited email - - because you didn't realize that until you got my email. Because you can't read.

Which cut me to the quick because, not only can I read (I swear it's true!), but I so value the opinion of lefty sock puppeteers. Again, I felt moved to respond:

From: The Dread Pundit Bluto (dreadpundit@hotmail.com)
Sent: Mon 10/29/07 1:31 PM
To: Glenn Greenwald (ggreenwald@salon.com)

But you didn't post it as a part of the Salon article. You stuck it on a server that the vast majority of your readers won't bother to seek out. I gave you full credit for forwarding the email to me, can't you read?

You would be this rude and insulting to a reader, responding from a Salon email account? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. On the other hand, maybe now you have some perspective on how an American officer, serving in Iraq, might feel about media attacks from a dishonest, self-serving propagandist.

Btw, this email exchange will be posted.

Cheers,

Bluto

And that's where it stands now. If my pen pal writes back again, I'll keep you up to date.

Full Text of Email Reveals Greenwald Mischaracterizations

Welcome, fellow minions of the lgf New World Odor

Glenn Greenwald, as he had promised in his post at Salon, has forwarded the email he says he received from Colonel Steven A. Boylan, Public Affairs Officer for General Petraeus.

The parts that Greenwald chose not to publish [clarification: "publish" here denotes "include in the Salon article," rather than external links. This clarification was made in order to prevent the use of this self-evidently inadvertent error as a cheap method for avoiding the substantive point here - oops, too late*] tend to contradict his characterization of the email as "bizarre" and "unsolicited". Furthermore, while Greenwald claims that the email doesn't dispute his paranoid ravings about the military working with rightwing bloggers in the Beauchamp affair, it in fact dismisses them out-of-hand, and quite properly. Greenwald has also redacted the parts of the email that highlight his shoddy research.

In fact, I'd say that Greenwald exceeds mere exaggeration and mischaracterization and flirts with outright lies in that section of his post. Colonel Boylan has not confirmed the authenticity of the letter, and the possibility remains that Greenwald, who has been alleged to use sock puppets in the past, might have faked it.

I hope the Colonel did write it, and, if he did, that he gets a commendation for it.

Below is what Greenwald claims is the full text of the email. The portions Greenwald chose to leave out are in boldface:

Glenn,
I had hoped to post this in response to your article, but apparently it is closed already.

I am not sending this as anyone's spokesperson, just a straight military Public Affairs Officer, with about 27 months overall time in Iraq who is concerned with accuracy, context and characterization of information and has worked with media of all types since joining the career field in 1991. The issues of accuracy, context, and proper characterization is something that perhaps you could do a little research and would assume you are aware of as a trained lawyer.

I do enjoy reading your diatribes as they provide comic relief here in Iraq. The amount of pure fiction is incredible. Since a great deal of this post is just opinion and everyone is entitled to their opinions, I will not address those even though they are shall we say -- based on few if any facts. That does surprise me with your training as a lawyer, but we will leave those jokes to another day.

You do have one fact in your post -- then Brigadier General Bergner did work at the National Security Council on matters concerning Iraq. Not surprising as he had returned from a year plus deployment to Iraq as the Multi-National Division - North Assistant Division Commander. It would seem reasonable that someone with Iraq experience would work issues at the NSC that was familiar with and had experience in Iraq. All else after that portion in your post about Major General Bergner is just your wishful thinking to support your flawed theory.

The claims about Steve Schmidt being out here on the staff in Iraq are just flat wrong. Pray tell, where do you think he is and how long have you fantasized that he has been here? Based on our records of who is in Iraq, I am really sorry to disappoint you, but he just isn't here. You are either too lazy to do the research on the topics to gain the facts, or you are providing purposeful misinformation -- much like a propagandist.
Schmidt was here, but at the time for the vote on the Iraqi Constitution, October 2005 for 30 days. He was never on the MNF-I staff and for that short period was actually detailed to the Department of State. He hasn't been back since. Sorry to burst your bubble, but a little actual research on your part would have shown that he is actually not here, but that would contradict your conspiracy theory. I am curious as to when you think the media relations or operations changed here in Iraq. I in fact do know exactly the day and time that it changed and want to see if you are even in the same ballpark as reality.

For the third matter concerning the Beauchamp investigation and the documents that were leaked - it is very unfortunate that they were - but the documents are not secret or classified. So, there is your third major error in fact. Good thing you are not a journalist. The information that was released and it appears that has since been taken off the net is more of a matter concerning the Privacy Act. Since we don't know who released them, we are not able to take the appropriate actions and the media tends not to give up their sources -- good, bad or indifferent...I will not judge. That is our system and we must work with it.

As for working in secret with only certain media is laughable. The wide swatch of media engagements is by far the most diverse it could be. But you might not think it that way since we chose not to do an interview with you. You are not a journalist nor do you have any journalistic ethical standards as we found out from the last time I engaged with you. As we quickly found out, you published our email conversation without asking, without permission -- just another case in point to illustrate your lack of standards and ethics. You may recall that a 30-minute interview was conducted with the program that you claim to be a contributor. So instead of doing the interview with you, we went with the real talent, Alan Colmes.

I also noticed that you fail to mention the amount of material that is leaked to those other publications that I dare you to call right-wing like the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, etc. I do not condone or wish them to happen, but it happens. If you believe they are right-wing, then again, it is nice to live in a fantasy world.

I invite you to come see for yourself and go anywhere in Iraq you want, go see what our forces are doing, go see what the other coalition forces are doing, go hang out with the reporters outside the International Zone since that is where they live and work and see for yourself what ground truth is so that you can be better informed. But that would take something you probably don't have.

Steve

Steven A. Boylan
Colonel, US Army
Public Affairs Officer

* The source for the phrase, "...was made in order to prevent the use of this self-evidently inadvertent error as a cheap method for avoiding the substantive point here - oops, too late," is here.

And the Whiniest Little Snot of the Day Award Goes to...

Glenn Greenwald, infamous sock puppeteer, writing at Salon who is ever so offended that a military officer Greenwald has dumped on has the brass to give some back. With someone like Greenwald, there's always the strong possibility that he has faked this email for self-promotion. Regardless, whoever wrote the email, the vicious assessment of Greenwald's journalism skills is dead on.

Sunday Funny

From the Dry Bones Blog.

How Stupid Are Congressional Staffers? - Updated

Update: Apparently, the Capitolist's system is vulnerable to hackers, as evidenced by this series of posts (earliest post, a test, at bottom):

Q. Who can post on The Capitolist?
A. Anyone can post, as long as they have a Capitol Hill IP address.
Congressional staffers who aren't always at a Capitol Hill IP address
can gain access by obtaining a temporary access ticket (these can only be obtained when logged in from a Capitol Hill IP address).
yah right... give this thing a makeover and make it exclusive to capitol hill peeps. im not logged on a capitol hill ip address...

10/27/2007 - 1:25 am
im posting on the capitolist. this thing is a joke. for all we know, this is just a bunch of hooligans pretending to be staffers. trust me guys, im not a staffer and i can post on this site.

10/27/2007 - 1:22 am
but i couldn't do this at the school's computer though. weird huh? HEY DREAM BUDDIES! ONE OF YOURS IS POSTING ON THE CAPITOLIST!

10/27/2007 - 1:17 am
i thought that you need an capitolist ip number... im not even a staffer and i can post!

10/27/2007 - 1:17 am

klja;lskdfjlk

10/27/2007 - 1:16 am

Update ends

Some are really, really stupid.

The Capitolist describes itself as "...an anonymous, uncensored message board for Hill staffers." Comments are only allowed from computers with Capitol Hill IP addresses, i.e., congressional offices. That means the staffers can't protect their identities by using an IP randomizer like Anonymouse.

Most of the comments are rather vicious complaints about constituents and DC tourists, but others are about policy issues, and how stupid the citizens contacting the offices are.

As any blogger can tell you, there's rarely such a thing as really "anonymous" on the intertubes. IP addresses are recorded by blog traffic and comment software, which allows the blogger to find information about the visitor or commenter using free "whois" tools websites. The same "whois" tools can be used to get information about websites: who registered, and thus, owns, the site their business address, etc.

Unless, of course, the web site uses an anonymous proxy company like GoDaddy.com to register the site. Then, no one can find out who owns the site without a court order.

One of the commenters at The Capitolist even acknowledges the danger:

Anyone ever make the mistake of doing something on their office computer and got caught? I did...sort of. A long time ago I stubbled upon a blog that had an entry that was critical and also false regarding my MoC. So...I couldn't resist. I responded in the comments (anoymously I thought) and debunked the whold thing. Next thing I know there is a response to my comment, but it's from the person who runs and posted the blog entry. He noticed the origin of my IP address and the name of another staff member who name was for some reason associated with it. He mentioned that he wasn't going to say anything and he didn't really care...he just didn't want me chasing away his regulars. I have to admit though...I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach when he posted that IP info in his response. Shit...

10/26/2007 - 1:14 pm

And, since The Capitolist uses GoDaddy.com, no one knows who runs the site, and has access to the IP records of all these comments. IP addresses that can identify the staffers' offices and who they work for.

Staffers: what if Karl Rove registered this site? What if George Soros is poring over your records? Gee, would that maybe expose you to blackmail or something?

Thanks to commenter allahkachew at The Jawa Report.

Friends of Boy Scouts Crash Philly Email System in Protest

What happens when the Philadelphia city council votes to cornhole their local Boy Scouts? Outrage crashes their email system:

Outraged citizens crashed the e-mail system of the Philadelphia mayor's office after the city accused the local Boy Scouts chapter of discriminating against homosexuals and forced the organization to pay $200,000 rent for its city-owned headquarters.

Thanks to Jay at Stop the ACLU.

Liberals Outnumber Conservatives 11 to 1 at 'Impartial' BBC

Not only do the liberals vastly outnumber the conservatives at this "journalistic" enterprise, they're stupid enough to admit it on Facebook.

From the Daily Mail:

Research by the conservativehome. com website showed that 1,340 staff put themselves in the "liberal" or "very liberal" category, compared with just 120 who were "conservative" or "very conservative". Some 340 regard themselves as "moderate".

BBC employees went Facebook mad earlier this year, with thousands signing up to log their profiles.

But, don't worry Brits. BBC management has a scheme plan to deal with this distressing news:

Last night the BBC refused to comment on the research, insisting it was a "private matter".

But a well-placed insider said that staff who were Facebook members were likely to be warned to remove their political views from their profiles in the wake of the row.

Unlike "journalists" in the US, the British government funds the BBC's propaganda initiatives.

Via memeorandum.

Inadvertent Smithereen Commando

Allahu-akbar...allahu-akbar...allahu-akbar...DOH!



Thanks to the Flying Dutchman, Jan Z.

Separated at Birth?

Alright, this was funny:

Note that Mr. Potato Head has a much more favorable body-to-brain mass ratio than does Rangel.

From The Capitolist. Now there will probably be an investigation to find out what Congresscritter's staff posted the pictures.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...Lend Me Your Amygdalae

Just when you thought Democrats couldn't possibly get any weirder, along comes Dave Helfert to set you straight:

His memo...suggests a neurological explanation for Republican message success: By using emotional appeals and warning of dire threats, Republicans can trigger neurons called “amygdalae” in the temporal lobe, which is the seat of the “fight or flight” response in the brain.

Liberal Whackjob: Spam is a Vast, Rightwing Conspiracy

We all get them. Unsolicited emails with huge recipient lists that describe improbable events and never have any supporting links. Most people just delete them. Maybe you'll visit snopes to debunk an especially intriguing one, but that's about as far as it goes.

But to Christopher Hayes, a rather untalented devotee of Josef Goebbels, at The Nation, it's all being orchestrated by the evil neocons:

We've all become familiar with the ways the Republican noise machine transmits lurid bits of misinformation and tendentious attacks from the conservative fringe into the heart of American political discourse, the process by which a slightly misdelivered joke by John Kerry attracts the ire of Rush Limbaugh and ends up on the front page of the New York Times.

I've heard of it too. It's called, "the Bill of Rights." But maybe Hayes is exercised about something really, really subversive:

"It's a Pandora's box," says Jim Kennedy, who served as Clinton's communications director during her first Senate term. "Once [the charges] are out in the ether, they are very hard to combat. It's very unlike a traditional media, newspaper or TV show, or even a blog, which at least has a fixed point of reference. You know they're traveling far and wide, but there's no way to rebut them with all the people that have seen them."

Hayes is convinced that they're all coordinated by some shadowy rightwing master propagandist, probably under the direct supervision of Karl Rove, transcribing each and every message as it is dictated from Hitler's preserved brain.

Other leftwing nutjobs building the meme:

The Carpetbagger Report
Washington Monthly
Cannonfire
The Atlantic Monthly.

Sweet, Sweet Surrender: Kos Diarist Says 'Convert to Islam'

Is this Kos entry just heavy handed sarcasm? Hard to tell with KosKidz; they don't feel bound by the rules of logic as the rest of us:

All in all, converting to Islam would be a small price to pay for an end to the killing and maiming of our sons and daughters, not to mention the billions of dollars we could put to better use than fighting this perpetual war.

In any case, most of the commenters are taking it seriously:

It crossed my mind just after 9-11.... (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:Yacka Jah Yacka
If I were President.....I might call bin Laden's bluff and convert...maybe declare America a Muslim nation.......which, actually, American Muslims report that America is, in many ways--the spirit, not the rituals.

If it would avert so much tragedy, I'd even make a pilgrimmage to Mecca...

Unfortunately, according to a Kos Muslim, it wouldn't be enough:

As a Muslim, of course, yes, I want non-Muslims to embrace Islam, but the reason for the "conversions" is something few Muslims would want to see happen. In Islam, intentions are very important. What is your intention for becoming Muslim? To end the war on terror? Sorry. While that goal is laudable, it's not enough. We don't want people to become Muslim for such a petty reason...

Thanks to Dr. Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report. who got it from Snapped Shot. who got it from Texas Rainmaker.

Salon's Favorite Hypocrite: Glenn Greenwald

Thank Heavens that Glenn Greenwald, lawyer by the grace of God and sock puppeteer by dint of stupidity, agreed to valiantly come off vacation to fly into a frothing snit and launch a new conspiracy theory in defense of the tattered shreds of The New Republic's reputation.

As you may recall, yesterday, Drudge posted documents exposing lies by the editors of The New Republic in the Scott Thomas Beauchamp phony correspondent controversy. Beauchamp had written faked and grossly exaggerated stories for TNR under a pseudonym. The document posted by Drudge included Army investigative reports and a transcript of a telephone conversation between Beauchamp and TNR editor Franklin Foer.

Shrieking like a bull mouse, Greenwald prances to the attack and indicts the entire US military and every non-liberal in government, all working together in a massive conspiracy to screw the little old New Republic:

But there is a secondary issue in this story that is being ignored -- how the U.S. military, like everything else, is becoming rapidly politicized, fully incorporated into and following the model of the Republican right-wing noise machine.

Glenn doesn't even mention the possibility, which seems more than likely, that the documents were leaked by a "lone gunman" who was simply outraged at Beauchamp's original slander of his comrades, and the blatant lies told by The New Republic attempting to cover up their own incompetence. Someone who wanted to, well, speak truth to power.

Glenn is outraged that anyone would leak documents, even documents that endanger no troops and have no bearing on national security.

But here, Glenn defends treason by the NYT, which published details of the secret government program to track terrorist money, details that were [gasp!] leaked to them.

Freedom of the Press and all that, you know, that's what Glenn Greenwald stands for. Well, at least freedom of the Press in serving liberal partisan concerns...

Sac Bee Reporter Tries to Drop Himself Down the Memory Hole

But luckily, Docweasel took a snapshot.

Bobby Calvan is a reporter for the Sacramento Bee, who was blogging while on assignment in Iraq. On October 23, Bobby posted an entry bragging about being an arrogant jackass to a US soldier manning a security checkpoint. Here's how Calvan himself describes his attitude toward his fellow Americans:

The Americans, however, are the absolute worst. I had a testy exchange Tuesday with an American soldier at an entry checkpoint into the Green Zone.

Calvan then goes on to explain, quite vaingloriously, how he sought to intimidate a checkpoint soldier who questioned his lack of proper credentials:

We couldn’t call for an escort, because he wouldn’t let us switch on our cell phones. (Cell phone batteries need to be removed at most checkpoints.) If we wanted to use our cell phones, we would have to make the far walk beyond the barricades and razor wire. We would have to put ourselves in danger by standing out in the middle of downtown Baghdad where I could become a potential target. (As required, I was wearing my body armour, despite the heat.)

With nothing to lose I decided to get pushy.

This idiot doesn't even seem to realize that cell phones are used to trigger IEDs.

The post brought a flood of negative comments to his blog, and a similar flood of emails to his editors at the Sacramento Bee. First Calvan edited the post to try to make himself come off better, then somebody pulled the plug, not just on this post, but on Calvan's entire blog.

But happily, as I mentioned, Docweasel took a snapshot. In fact, Docweasel perserved the entire Calvan blog entry, along with its comments. Read the whole thing and the comments. The comments give you a good idea of why Calvan decided to disappear his own blog.

I've been able to preserve some of the rest of Calvan's blog, at least through October 18th, because while Google didn't preserve it in their cache, someone else did. This is a link to my entire Calvin Interruptus file.

Here's a sample from the Calvan Interruptus file:

Yes, it was certainly an adventure, my colleagues agreed. A once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some have already turned “once” into “several.” I’m still looking for my initiation into being a foreign correspondent — will reporting mostly from a hotel room count?

Will it count? Why not? Most of the intrepid reporting from Iraq is generated from hotel rooms, based on Iraqi (and undercover jihadi) stringers.

Drudge Posts TNR "Shock Troops" Investigative Documents

The New Republic's outlandish stonewalling to protect fake source Scott Thomas is completely demolished by these official documents that Drudge has obtained and posted:

The documents appear to expose that once the veracity of Beauchamp's diaries were called into question, and an Army investigation ensued, THE NEW REPUBLIC has failed to publicly account for publishing slanderous falsehoods about the U.S. military in a time of war.

This house of cards is falling, though clueless lefty bloggers continue to cite Beauchamp's lies, even as their hyperlinks disappear (click on this bonehead's "Scott Thomas Beauchamp" link to see the "404 File Not Found" page.

Thanks to a tip from The Book Worm.

Update II:
Here are the documents Drudge posted earlier:

Document 1:
http://depositfiles.com/files/2152542

Document #2
http://depositfiles.com/files/2152525

Document #3
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/2153143

So far, Drudge is still mum on why he yanked the files; possibly because they were unredacted. Fortunately, they had already been copied by numerous bloggers.

Thanks to Dr. Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report.

Update:
Kevin Drum still believes that the sun and planets orbit the earth:

It's hard to judge whether this is damning or not. On August 10, the Army was stonewalling TNR. They didn't get to talk to Beauchamp until nearly a month later. And the fact that after a month of browbeating from his chain of command Beauchamp "just want[ed] it to end" is hardly surprising either. We still don't know whether Beauchamp was telling the truth the first time around when he wrote his pieces for TNR or the second time around when he recanted under pressure from the Army.

Drum accused Drudge of only showing "snippets" of the documents, until a commenter pointed out that they were hot-linked. Other commenters call on Drum to admit he was wrong about Beauchamp all along.

Reporter: 'Jena 6' Everyday Cowards, Not Racial Martyrs

I never could work up any sympathy for six pussies stomping a fellow student. Guess I'm not like Reginald Denny.

Craig Franklin of the Christian Science Monitor, who lives in Jena, Louisiana, explodes the mythology that has been constructed around the Jena 6 by incompetent national reporting:

There's just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice.

Truthiness in action.

Video: Payback's a Bitch

727th EACS ("Kingpin") Presents...

727th EACS ("Kingpin") Present - "Payback's a Bitch"


Note with Video says

This is a compilation of numerous U.S. Airstrikes throughout Iraq during 2005. This video was compiled and edited by Airmen of the 272th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron.

Freaking awesome!

Hat Tip: Lucky.

Leftist Perfidy Awareness Week

You have to wonder whether David Horowitz's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is really intended to raise awareness of Islamic inspired terrorism and oppression, or if the real target is the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the American Left. Intentional or not, IFAW is a near irresistible trap for the more deranged liberals.

Josh Marshall doesn't even bother to address the appropriateness of the term Islamo-Fascism, so eager is he to attack the apostate Horowitz (Horowitz was a leftist until the dishonesty of the movement becaem too muich for him) and everyone to the right of Josef Stalin in Talking Points Memo:

Did you know it was Islamofascism Awareness Week? And have you thought about what you're going to do to raise awareness about this concept the loss of which would be such a devastating blow to the vanity and intellectual pretensions of countless right-wing bloggers and editorialists throughout the English-speaking world?

And the clearinghouse for the anti-Horowitz movement (via little green footballs), the clumsily (and ironically) named National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking in Academia has whipped itself into a frenzy in its eagerness to suppress anything that Horowitz has to say. This, in spite of the lofty slogan in its sidebar:

"...if is crucial that we who belong to the academic community join togehter to protect those who are the targets of repressive tactics..."

Yada-yada-yada, these simpletons are as longwinded as they are totally incapable of recognizing the irony of their fight to smother speech with which they disagree, if it comes from someone on the Right.

Personally, I think "Islamo-barbarism" comes closer to the truth, but if Horowitz can use "Islamo-Fascism" to whip America's enemies within into a froth of self-exposure, more power to him.

Newsweek, UN: Surge a Huge Success

As A.J. at the Strata-Sphere notes, both Newsweek and the UN have acknowledged the success of the US troop surge, as seen in a 95% reduction in war violence in Iraq and the flight of al Qaeda terrorists into Pakistan:

Here is the essence of it all. The Surge is working and working very, very well. Iraq is experiencing such a dramatic change in fortunes the anti-war left is in complete denial that their hopes of US failure will now never come true. To underline this we can see by the statistics on death and violence in Iraq how much thing have changed.

Here's a chart comparing casualty rates between the GWOT, Vietnam, and WWII. The GWOT casualty rates are pre-Surge.



The base chart comes from the Appeal For Courage. I've added the WWII casualty figures. And the chart isn't meant to compare wars. It's meant to compare the effect on homefront civilians of incredibly biased, partisan reporting from folks who claim to be journalists.

Will You Print the Truth For Free?

When Michael Yon, the freelance journalist covering the war in Iraq, came back to the states during General Petraeus' testimony to Congress, he was shocked at the old news, misinformation, and propaganda circulating in the American public eye:

Clearly, a majority of Americans believe the current set of outdated fallacies passed around mainstream media like watered down drinks at happy hour. Why wouldn’t they? The cloned copy they get comes from the same sources that list the specials at the local grocery store, and the hours and locations of polling places for town elections.

Yon's answer is to offer his firsthand reports to members of the National Newspaper Association free of charge:

...[W]hat if I made a similar offer on a more permanent basis to a large media syndication, say, the National Newspaper Association?

Using the lessons learned from “Bless the Beasts,” it probably won’t be enough just to make the news I am reporting available to NNA-member publications at no cost. There may need to be a little irritating sand in order to get a pearl out of this oyster.

You can donate to Yon's mission here.

Read the whole thing.

Others blogging this:
Say Anything
Hot Air
Confederate Yankee
Bookworm Room
protein wisdom
Free Speech
Pundit Review
The Strata-Sphere
Stop the ACLU

Via non-linky "automatic" memeorandum.

Meanwhile on Tatooine

Via RedPlanet:

Forget Al Gore. Here are some people doing something worthwhile with their time.

Pretty cool. You know when you've been drawn as a comic book character, you become immortal.

Jawas all bow in unison.

New Delhi Deputy Mayor Killed by Monkeys

No, this is not some sort of sick joke:

NEW DELHI: A senior government official died Sunday after falling from a balcony during an attack by wild monkeys at his home in the Indian capital, media reported.

New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital after the attack by the gang of Rhesus macaques, but quickly succumbed to head injuries sustained in his fall, the Press Trust of India news agency and The Times of India reported.

It may be karma:

Last year, the Delhi High Court reprimanded city authorities for failing to stop the animals from terrifying residents and asked them to find a permanent solution to the monkey menace.

Stossel to Gore: Global Warming Debate NOT Over

Others not done debating:

The Jawa Report
Stop the ACLU
Suitably Flip
NewsBusters.

Soldier and His Family Could Use Your Help

Reminding us of the fragility of life in all places and circumstances is this tragic story. Specialist John A. Johnson has survived five IED blasts in Iraq, only to have a bitter fate stalk him at home:

But Spc. Johnson's luck began to turn with the last IED blast, which left him with a traumatic brain injury. Back in Texas for care at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, he was eagerly awaiting a visit by his wife and three children last weekend.

But the children never arrived.

"I went up to his room and told him there was a problem," said Sgt. Schmidt, an Army medic who has grown close to the family over the last week. "I told him there was an accident and two of his children were deceased.

The surviving child remains on life support.

If you can help, donations can be made to the John A. and Monalisa Johnson Fund at any Bank of America.

Sunday Funny

From the Dry Bones Blog.

Blogger Who Posted Malkin Info Threatens 'Hit' on Another Blogger

Chuck Adkins, who earlier posted Michelle Malkin's address, phone number, and an aerial photo of her house, is now alleged to have threatened another blogger via email.

And, as it turns out, Chuck is 35 and lives with his parents. Because of Bushitlerburton.

Read the whole pathetic story at Freespeech.

ABC Misleads About Limbaugh Letter; WaPo Outright Lies About It

Perhaps hoping to one-up a fellow traveller, Z. Byron Wolf, who merely grossly mislead the public at the ABC Blog, Washington Post writer Neely Tucker has lied outright about the controversy between Senate Dems and Rush Limbaugh:

The letter in question is an Oct. 2 two-pager from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark Mays lambasting the syndicate's Rush Limbaugh, who had recently criticized U.S. troops who were against the war in Iraq.

"Phony soldiers," blasted Limbaugh.

"Beyond the pale," Reid blasted back. "Unpatriotic," he added.

Everyone conversant with the incident knows that Limbaugh was referring to Jesse MacBeth and others who have impersonated soldiers and become darlings of the antiwar left until being exposed as frauds. Tucker had to have ignored the transcripts and audio recordings that Limbaugh has posted the public portion of his website.

I suppose we should be used to this sort of blatant propaganda masquerading as journalism by now, but Neely Tucker should be counseled by his masters that outright lies, especially ones easily exposed, are generally ineffective mind control tools.

Others:

Confederate Yankee, who notes that ABC is busy deleting critical comments at their blog.
Don Surber, who points to the ABC blog as a reason more and more people distrust the media these days.
NewsBusters.

Inshallahshaheed IS Our Bitch

Sammy's backup blog became his main blog because his main blog goes down almost as fast as he'll have to in prison.





http://worldclash.wordpress.com. Dead.

His bouncy muslimpad blog is carrying a message he's moving to every online terrorists last refuge. Google owned blogspot.

But not this blogspot blog.

Why move would he have to move to google, other than his current blog is not what you'd call highy available?

Well, Google has never taken down al-Qaeda's blog, so I guess Sammy figures he's tired of the bullshit and wants a host that's guaranteed not to take him down. Well we thought we'd never get him off wordpress. But we did.

I tried to block his new URL but, er, uh, ooops. I'll give him that one. Jawa 5 or 6, Sammy 1.

Have fun uploading all those files and reposting everything.

Terrorist Mortar Team Gets a Surprise

I love the laconic language that MNFIraq uses in this video description:

An enemy mortar team in Iraq launched an attack against two Coalition bases in June, 2007. Members of the team are tracked following the attack and Apache crews engage.

"...Apache crews engage." Hahaha...mortar this, a-holes.

Limbaugh Smear Letter Goes For $2.1 Mil

Rush is now the first person in history to successfully polish a turd! Reid and Dem co-conpirators left to eat sandwich made from the leavings!

"Eww, it's all warm and salty," says Reid.

Other Hsu Falls? Chinatown Poor Shower Hillary With Money

From the LA Times:

NEW YORK -- Something remarkable happened at 44 Henry St., a grimy Chinatown tenement with peeling walls. It also happened nearby at a dimly lighted apartment building with trash bins clustered by the front door...

...All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000. When Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) ran for president in 2004, he received $24,000 from Chinatown.

The LAT reports further that donors said they felt pressured to give by shadowy Chinatown organizations that are descended from criminal gangs.

Krauthammer's Razor: Pelosi Stupid and Incompetent

In a Washington Post Op-Ed Charles Krauthammer examines the motives behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to insult our ally Turkey with a resolution condemning acts of genocide against the Armenians committed 90 years ago by the Ottoman Empire:

Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious (columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus) attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort?

Turkey had already made it quite clear that passage of the resolution would be an insult that would result in jeopardizing our vital supply routes through that country to Iraq, and could precipitate Turkish military action against Kurds in northern Iraq.

Krauthammer offers this explanation of Pelosi's motive:

Is the Armenian resolution her way of unconsciously sabotaging the U.S. war effort, after she had failed to stop it by more direct means? I leave that question to psychiatry. Instead, I fall back on Krauthammer's razor (with apologies to Occam): In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.

I disagree. It's my opinion that Pelosi is, in addition to being stupid and incompetent, more than evil enough to have plotted this resolution, and its consequences, deliberately.

Pete Stark Stark Raving Mad

Breitbart points out this example of senile dementia masquerading as a US Representative.



Transcript of the most offensive part of Pete Stark's (D-CA) lunatic rant below [emphasis added]:

"Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Isn't Dr. Kevorkian out of prison now?

AP Writer All Wistful and Nostalgic For Good Old Days Of 'Fragging'

Confederate Yankee notes that AP writer Estes Thompson seems to be mourning a lack of mutiny among American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in this story:

Both Roland and Anderson said today's all-volunteer military, compared with soldiers being forced into duty in Vietnam, is the primary reason why fragging attacks are almost nonexistent in Iraq and Afghanistan. The conditions in Iraq are also much less conducive to the crime, Roland said...

...In Vietnam, fragging increased as drafted troops became more demoralized during the conflict's later years.

That's one way to look at. Another way is that "fragging" was non-existent before the mainstream media of the time started turning against the war in 1969 (once it could be tagged to a Republican adminstration).

And, of course, current antiwar activists have been praying for fragging incidents for years.

'You Nazi, Scum-Sucking Pigs'

I always found Ellen Degeneres about as funny as a rectal boil, even before she salvaged her career by pimping her sexual orientation. But finally, Ellen has done a funny bit:



The "piece of paper?" It's called a contract. Ellen signed it, and now she wants to abuse the power of her celebrity status in order to renege on the deal. And do any of you believe, even for a second, that a commodity like Ellen Degeneres signs anything without her lawyers subjecting it to the sort of scrutiny usually reserved for non-liberal politicians' tax returns?

What's not funny at all are the death threats generated against the little people running the animal rescue operation by this spoiled celebrity pinhead:

"They have gotten thousands of e-mails," attorney Keith Fink told the television program "Inside Edition.""Most of them are hate e-mails threatening them with lynchings, bombings of their home."

One recording "Inside Edition" played had a male voice saying, "You Nazi, scum-sucking pigs. You're gonna pay dearly for stealing this dog from those little girls."

Puppies are rambunctious and don't usually get along too well with cats...who knew? Pretty much everyone in the world except Ellen Degeneres.

House Dems Vote to Give Terrorists a Break

The appropriately named Chair of the House Rules Committee, Louise Slaughter, led the charge to give terrorists more latitude against Americans.

From the Weekly Standard:

This is a reckless way to handle national security. House Democrats have once again shut Republicans out of the debate completely (as they did just yesterday in debate on the Internet Tax Freedom Act). They've used their position of power to give terrorists working with WMD a 'grace period' while U.S. intelligence agencies go to court for permission to tap them. They've abused the process to preserve the fatal flaws in their own bill:

The Democratic bill specifically requires a court order to monitor conversations between terrorists abroad and people in the United States. So if Osama bin Laden called an al Qaeda cell in the United States, the intelligence community could not listen to the communication without a court order.
It imposes FISA requirements on the US military--creating a perverse situation where it's easier to kill a suspected terrorist than monitor his calls.
It creates a database of U.S. citizens suspected to be terrorists--a database that must be shared across agencies and with (notoriously leaky) members of Congress and their staffs.
In specifically denying protection to telecommunications companies, it exposes those companies to lawsuits and creates a strong incentive for them not to cooperate with future surveillance activities.
House Democrats are shutting down debate to ram through a bill that will ensure repeats of episodes like this one, where U.S. soldiers in Iraq had to wait for hours to search for a missing comrade, while lawyers in Washington prepared a legal brief.

Alternative Theory to Rethuglican Attack on Randi Rhodes

This is just a theory, not actual footage of the alleged incident, and is offered in the spirit of Jon Elliott's "rightwing hate machine:

Success of Surge Hurting Iraqi Business

Even good news gets the every silver lining has a cloud treatment:

NAJAF, Iraq — At what's believed to be the world's largest cemetery, where Shiite Muslims aspire to be buried and millions already have been, business isn't good.

A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds.

I'd like to say that I'm confident that the writers of this piece were being tongue-in-cheek here, but I'm not sure they were.

Nobel Laureate Says Blacks Less Intelligent

James Watson, co-winner of the Nobel in 1962 for his work in DNA research, has created a firestorm by stating publicly that he believes Africans to be less intelligent than whites (and presumably Asians) due to "geographically separated" evolution.

Here's the original article and quote:

He says that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”, and I know that this “hot potato” is going to be difficult to address. His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.

Watson has created controversy in the past by offending feminists and telling a woman that, yes, it would be possible to abort gay babies. This last was taken as advocacy, but apparently he was just speaking to the theoretical possibility of determining sexual orientation prior to birth.

Sadly, rather than refute Watson on scientific grounds, most critics will attack from a position of political correctness, a kneejerk response that will only encourage overt racists.

WaPo: Let's Do the Timewarp Again

The lead paragraph for this Washington Post political piece, a preemptive strike aimed at suppressing GOP votes and campaign contributions, seems innocuous enough:

More than a third of the top fundraisers who helped elect George W. Bush president remain on the sidelines in 2008, contributing to a gaping financial disparity between the GOP candidates and their Democratic counterparts.

The only problem is the date beneath the byline: October 17, 2007. Now, we all know that campaign seasons have been starting earlier and earlier, but sheesh, are MSM political operatives really allowed to just delete a few months from the year?

Perhaps they're referring to Fiscal 2008?

The Randi Rhodes 'Mugging': What Have We Learned?

"What Have We Learned?"

This is a question my son likes to ask after seeing the universe reward stupidity in the usual way. For example, he said it after a particularly gruesome episode of "Scarred" featuring a skateboarder who slit his nutsack open on a metal spur while trying to grind down a railing.

Sadly, in the fever swamps of the American Left, I predict that nothing at all will be learned from yesterday's slapstick of irresponsible accusations and childlike conspiracy rumor-mongering over the Randi Rhodes "mugging". Maybe a few will recoil from their own Pavlovian spasms, but most will put the ridiculous incident out of mind as quickly as possible, and lurch on 'til the next time.

Shawn Macomber at The American Spectator explores the hysteria on the Left in reaction to Ms. Rhodes' pratfall:

The answer for many was a resounding, "Yes!" Over at Rhodes' official messageboard, more than a few suspected a "Nazi Brownshirt" attack. "If you've watched The Sopranos you know how easy (and cheap) it is to buy that kind of hit," one intoned darkly. "IF this was a political hit from Blackwater or whoever, there is going to be the wrath of G-d on the perpetrators," another added. The proprietor of TalkingRadio wailed, "These whack jobs appear determined to whatever it takes to silence the opposing point of view." And a visitor to Think Progress, the blog of the Center For American Progress -- a self-declared "nonpartisan organization" paradoxically fighting against the "Radical Right-Wing Agenda" -- posited Rhodes was "probably beaten up by some nutball in the Mallkin [sic] Mongoloid Mafia...that's the type of viscous [sic] rabid people they are."

Maybe the shrinks were onto something with this "projection" dealie.

Thanks to Ragnar at The Jawa Report.

'Right-wing Hate Machine!!!' Uh...Never Mind

Turns out that the Air America host Jon Elliott's "right-wing, hate machine" doesn't exist. Far from being attacked by Rethuglican brownshirts, Randi Rhodes, well, fell down:

Rhodes' lawyer told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog. He said she's not sure what happened, and only knows that she fell down and is in a lot of pain. The lawyer said Rhodes expects to be back on the air Thursday. He stressed there is no indication she was targeted or that she was the victim of a "hate crime."

Lunatics on the left taking the bait:

Think Progress
Gawker
Shakespeare's Sister and previously noted notorious know-nothing
Chuck Adkins.

Update: Bitsblog has a screen cap of Chuck Adkins header for the Randi Rhodes saga. It features a headshot of Ann Coulter, a handgun, and the word "Please." A heartwarmingly liberal sentiment, thanks Chuck. Via little green footballs.

Oh, and the latest rumor, courtesy of Mr. Clark in the Jawa comments, according to a commenter at Gawker, 14 bloody marys may have had something to do with the unfortunate incident.

Hillary to Surrender In Iraq Immediately Upon Taking Office?

Take this with a large grain of salt. It comes from the lunatic fringe leftist blog Firedoglake:

What I do know, is that I heard her say that she would end the Iraq war immediately upon taking office. Lots of heads snapped up when she said that (and there was plenty of applause, even a little whooping) and the very politically plugged in person sitting next to me remarked that the statement was “completely new”.

Did Hillary get caught pandering, expecting no one to record her remarks? We have Firedoglake correspondent "looseheadpoop"'s word on it.

Update: Not believing in coincidence, I'm smelling the stench of a Soros-style PR campaign in this WaPo piece that fits deftly into Hillary's "revelation."

We'll probably never know which anonymous WaPo staffers actually penned the piece, or what they offered the twelve captains to induce them to put their names to it, but Jules Crittenden does a great job exposing it as tired old rehashed propaganda with a fresh facade.

Could We Have About 800 Virgins Here, Please?

And would you hand me my spleen please, Abdul?

A US F-16 eliminates a truckload of terrorists.



Thanks to Good Lt. of The Jawa Report.

Warrantless Wiretaps A-Okay for Quelling Bimbo Eruptions

Just don't expect Hillary to approve of electronic surveillance for petty things like thwarting terrorist attacks, or saving the lives of kidnapped soldiers.

From The Hill [emphasis added]:

In their book about Clinton’s rise to power, Her Way, Don Van Natta Jr., an investigative reporter at The New York Times, and Jeff Gerth, who spent 30 years as an investigative reporter at the paper, wrote: “Hillary’s defense activities ranged from the inspirational to the microscopic to the down and dirty. She received memos about the status of various press inquiries; she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.

“The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill,” Gerth and Van Natta wrote in reference to Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. “Bill’s supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions.”

Nancy Pelosi: Idiot or Traitor?

How many Americans will die because of San Fran Nan's latest underhanded partisan scheme?

AFP: YouTube a Funding Ground for al Qaeda

From the India Times:

MANILA: Al-Qaida linked extremists under military siege in the Philippines have obtained fresh funding through the popular video-sharing website YouTube, police said.

But they said they had so far prevented the Abu Sayyaf group, responsible for some of the worst terror attacks in the Philippines, from using the funds to launch fresh bombing attacks in the country.

The government's National Intelligence Coordinating Agency has obtained “significant reports of new money received by the Abu Sayyaf's financial network on the southern island of Mindanao,” police spokesman Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao said in a statement.

“The money arrived after the (group) uploaded on the Internet the video of the late Janjalani brothers (Abdurajak Janjalani and Khadaffy Janjalani, both slain in police and military operations) seeking material and financial support,” Pagdilao added.

YouTube has a history of tolerating and encouraging anti-American videos and ones sympathetic to the jihadi cause - even when they violate YouTube's own "terms of service", while banning pro-American vids.

How Many Lawyers Does it Take?

From the New York Post

"The intelligence community was forced to abandon our soldiers because of the law," a senior congressional staffer with access to the classified case told The Post.

"How many lawyers does it take to rescue our soldiers?" he asked. "It should be zero."

The search for SPC Alex Jimenez was held up for nearly ten hours while lawyers quibbled querulously over the ramifications of FISA:

October 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials got mired for nearly 10 hours seeking approval to use wiretaps against al Qaeda terrorists suspected of kidnapping Queens soldier Alex Jimenez in Iraq earlier this year, The Post has learned.

This week, Congress plans to vote on a bill that leaves in place the legal hurdles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - problems that were highlighted during the May search for a group of kidnapped U.S. soldiers.

Even though the cell phones they wanted to tap were operating within Iraq, because the conversations were shunted through US hubs, they were subject to FISA restrictions.

Alex Jimenez has not been found. Al Qaeda says they murdered him and and buried him.

Update: DailyKos diarist "Kagro X" predictably responds with a screw them* political diatribe: it's all a Republican plot. The Kos diarist and commenters can't even bring themselves to mention Specialist Jimenez by name.

Apparently Kagros X and her commenters didn't read the entire Post story, because they don't understand why FISA applies in Iraq (see above).

*Markos Moulitsas Zuniga himself reveals his true feelings about fellow Americans killed in the War on Terror.

Inshallahshaheed Shot Down in Flames by Muslimpad

Ol Sammy's blog has died again. What? Did your mommy make you take it down? Or was it all those Muslims I emailed asking them to email your provider?



Too bad too, since you made the NYT today.

Inshallahshaheed will never go down, bi idhnillah!

So had the mommy's basement Jihad been shot down in flames?



Bwhahaahahahaha!!!!!!

Rusty has much much more on Inshallahshaheed here at The Jawa Report.

The 'Good Jihadis' Among Us

Hysterical New York Times propagandist Frank Rich has a problem with logic. If a Nazi can be shown to have performed any act, that act is, by definition, evil.

Frank, Hitler was an enthusiastic anti-smoker. In fact, he banned smoking in his presence. Therefore, all anti-smokers are evil, a new Gestapo in our midst. This is patently ridiculous, as is Rich's argument that aggressive interrogation techniques like waterboarding or sleep deprivation are exactly equivalent to yanking fingernails and severing genitals.

On the other hand, folks like Frank, who deliberately help the cause of worldwide jihad in order to futher their own political agenda are Good Jihadis. When the Caliphate comes, Frank, you'll find out what "torture" really is.

Sunday Funnies

From the Dry Bones Blog.










"Mo-doggie" by Lars Vilks, who is under a death fatwa from radical Islamists because of his cartoons. Today, CNN aired footage of Vilks' safe house, as well as announcing onscreen the name of the town where Vilks is secluded. Hat tip: larwyn.

Former Iraq Commander: 'Reporters Feed From a Pig's Trough'

Update: Full text of speech - MSM reports were even more duplicitous than I thought.

Update II: the Press coverup begins with lies of omission.

Big surprise; David Cloud of the New York Times deliberately mischaracterizes the speech, redacting all mention of the first twelve or thirteen paragraphs excoriating the MSM.

Steven Komarow is much, much less than honest in his writeup for the Associated Press.

At the Washington Post, Josh White's nose grows another few inches.
Updates end

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded Coalition forces in Iraq from June '03-June '04, then was forced into retirement because of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, lashed out at the Bush administration, Congress, and the Press Friday.

We'll turn to the Army Times, which isn't shy about reporting everything the ex-General had to say, and focus on the fond words he had for reporters before the MSM dumps them down the memory hole

This is the Army Times lead paragraph:

The former top commander of forces in Iraq lambasted reporters Friday for having “agenda-driven biases” he called “a threat to democracy,” and then laid out the Bush administration and Congress for bad planning and no clear end state for the war in Iraq.

Sanchez wasn't done:

Sanchez said his career was a casualty of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

He berated the room of about 30 to 40 reporters, saying he had been portrayed as a “liar” by people who had never met him...

...He said some poor strategic decisions in Iraq had become “defeats because of the media,” and that some reporters feed from a “pigs’ trough.”

He lamented the media’s treatment of Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown during Hurricane Katrina. Brown resigned from FEMA after accusations that he had mishandled the hurricane...

He said the partisan politics of Congress are “killing soldiers,” and that the focus needs to be not at Capitol Hill, but in Iraq. And, he said, the media’s coverage of partisan politics was driving a wedge in democracy. He called for newspapers to run corrections more prominently and noted that television and Internet outlets often don’t run corrections at all.

Sanchez also had much bad to say about the Bush administration, but you'll be able to get that, endlessly from the MSM, once they finish sanitizing the rest of Sanchez's remarks.

One wonders what General Hooker would have had to say about President Lincoln and General Grant in say, 1864.