Pallywood

A nice little documentary over at Power Line illustrates that faked news footage is hardly a new nor rare thing in “Palestine”.

The Revolt Begins?

Seems that “Tory Homeland Security” is just as addled as our own DHS. Passengers who obviously (and wisely) mistrust the government to protect them decided not to get on a flight with two suspicous-looking middle-eastern passengers. The THS spokesman clucked his tongue:

“This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally.

“For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense.”

He confiscates deoderant from little old white women, and then calls this irrational?

I’m having a bad dream, and I’d really like to wake up now.

‘Twas the Night Before Miraj

Let’s hope the “multifaceted response” is more like this than popping off a nuke over Jerusalem.

It’ll be the 22nd in Iran very soon now.

Treason

If your blood pressure is already high, skip this post.

I’m absolutely livid over the multiculturalist/PC treason committed by – ready for this? – The Department of Homeland Security.

On June 21, a senior DHS official from Washington personally guided Muslim officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations on a behind-the-scenes tour of Customs screening operations at O’Hare International Airport in response to CAIR complaints that Muslim travelers were being unfairly delayed as they entered the U.S. from abroad.

If this is the kind of idiots Bush has hired, then if a modern Democrat makes it to the White House we can just kiss Western Civilization goodbye.

If you want to try to convince me that this is not “giving aid and comfort to the enemy” you’re welcome to try. But I’ll warn you that it’s going to be a long, uphill climb. I feel like the doctor in Laurence of Arabia who was reduced to sputtering, “Outrageous!”. I’m about this far from using some choice Anglo-Saxon expletives here.

Which f-ing side are they on, anyway?

How it’s done

Here’s a rare case: A union guy I can agree with 100%. Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, demonstrates how to give a press conference.

Chutzpah

That’s what this Lebanese/Hezbo broadcast has when it talks of Israeli barbarism while showing Islamist barbarism.

(Warning: Graphic and distrubing footage of the desecration of Israeli corpses.)

Straining at a Silver Lining

VDH sees hope amid despair in the Middle East. He sees recent terrorism, including the Hezbo attack on Israel and the foiled airline bombing plot, as being counterproductive to the Islamists, since it’s unmasking them.

In an amorphous war of self-induced Western restraint, like the present one, truth and moral clarity are as important as military force. This past month, the world of the fascist jihadist and those who tolerate him was once again on display for civilization to fathom. Even the most timid and prone to appeasement in the West are beginning to see that it is becoming a question of “the Islamists or us.”

In this eleventh hour, that is a sort of progress after all.

I hope he’s right that the tide is turning. But there’s an awful lot of denial yet, and the tide sure seems slow to me.

So there’s your modified modicum of cheer for this Friday.

The leaks matter

only when it’s convenient to the traitors, apparently. Andy McCarthy reports

In order to convince Judge Anna Diggs Taylor to invalidate the NSA program, these plaintiffs had to establish that they had “standing” to sue — meaning that they had suffered some kind of individualized harm, something that was unique because it is not enough for standing purposes to simply claim a general objection to government policies.

So how did these plaintiffs claim to have been harmed? They are journalists, lawyers and scholars who do research and other work in the Middle East. But now, according to Judge Taylor’s opinion, they have sworn in affidavits that “Persons abroad who before the program [became pubic knowledge] spoke with them by telephone or internet no longer do so.” They are, she says, “stifled in their ability to vigorously conduct research, interact with sources, talk to clients,” because people suddenly think the U.S. government is listening.

Get it?

Bush’s Backbone, Please Call Your Office

Gerard Baker thinks George Bush should ask How’m I doin’?, except that he might not like the answer.

What we have now is a situation in which the world’s only superpower, with the largest economic and military advantage any country has ever enjoyed on Earth, is pinned down like Gulliver, tormented by an army of fundamentalist Lilliputians.

As John O’Sullivan points out on The Corner:

Baker is not a European appeaser complaining about U.S. unilateralism.

Quite the contrary. He was and is a supporter of the Iraq intervention and a defender of a strong U.S. role in the world—as readers of his work in the Times, The Weekly Standard, and The National Interest know.

But he is not a self-deceiver either. And it is plain that Bush, Condi, and the administration have lost their way and perhaps their self-confidence too.

If Bush does not learn and apply the lessons of the present crisis, he will leave office as a failure. What is worse, the world will have moved further toward a real and bloody clash of civilizations.

I know I’m not the only one deeply disappointed in both Bush and Rice. It seems that the fears that he was morphing into his father were all too well-founded.

Scary, sad day.

Eye Witness

A fascinating series on the Christian Science Monitor’s site about, and by, the reporter who was held hostage for 82 days. As of this posting, it’s up to Part 5.

It’s worth reading just for the up-close look she got of the enemy and how they operate and think.

Be Skeptical

While not taking our enemy seriously is a good way to lose the Long War, taking everything our own government says at face value is unwise as well. The Register, that hardy band of skeptics in England, points out that the noise about binary explosives may be bunkum.

We asked University of Rhode Island Chemistry Professor Jimmie C. Oxley, who has actual, practical experience with TATP, if this is a reasonable assumption, and she told us that merely dumping the precursors together would create “a violent reaction,” but not a detonation.

To release the energy needed to bring down a plane (far more difficult to do than many imagine, as Aloha Airlines Flight 243 neatly illustrates), it’s necessary to synthesize a good amount of TATP with care.

Read the whole thing to learn how silly the idea of mixing TATP in the lavatory really is.

Now it’s a big leap from debunking TATP to claiming that binary liquid explosives are “out of the question”. But as someone who seriously doubts that air travel under the boot of the TSA is any safer than September 10th, I suspect the Register guys are right.

Making a difference

Yesterday I flew to Burbank for meetings at a major studio. Then this happened.

It specifically targets “terrorist organisations” such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

“We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” the ad reads.

“If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

“We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs.”

Coincidence? You decide.

Profiling

Matt, the cartoonist at The Daily Telegraph understands

Stay Vigilant

If you happen to see young middle-eastern males purchasing cell phones, please call the cops.

Here’s why:

The School

A long, gripping, terrifying story on Esquire’s site (Buttle’s World takes no responsibility for the ads you may see there) called The School recounts the bloody story of the second biggest Islamist terrorist body count of the Long War – so far. While it properly calls them terrorists throughout, they are protrayed more as political than religious thugs.

Don’t forget that as they stormed the school they were shouting “Allahu akhbar!“. When men start shouting or chanting that, death is being worked. If there are exceptions, I’ve yet to hear of any.

Much Ado about Nothing

The Arab/Muslim world used to be quite different. Anciently, they built great cities and invented a lot of things. After all, no less than Thomas Jefferson studied their ancients. Clearly it is no longer capable of technological progress. But let’s give credit where credit is due. Everybody knows the Arabs gave us the zero. Right?

Wrong. It came from India.

No need to stage photos of barbarianism

when you have access to a lot of barbarians.

Sick

What else do you call a culture or religion which produces people willing to use their infant as part of a suicide terror plot?

Cops believe they would have hidden deadly chemicals in the baby’s milk. The grim discovery is behind the decision to make all mothers taste their baby’s milk before boarding flights to make sure it has not been contaminated.

Apparently the mom – the mom – was okay with this idea.

Mixed Bag

That’s Captain Ed’s take on the UN resolution.

Everything hinges on Nasrallah. If he accepts the terms and allows Siniora to dislodge them from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah is finished regardless of their public claims. Their raison d’etre is the defense of the southern border against Israel — and if the Lebanese Army takes that responsibility, then their militia serves no purpose in the middle of Lebanon. If Nasrallah balks, then Israel will have a green light and a wide window to finish the job, and they will have lost very little in the hours it will take for the gambit to play to its conclusion.

I fear Andy McCarthy is right about the Hezbos getting a win just for being recognized.

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, not a country. The resolution we are signing on to, however, addresses it as if it were a country. The resolution doesn’t purport to direct any UN member nation to make Hezbollah cease firing — least of all Lebanon, the purported sovereign of this territory. Instead, it appeals to Hezbollah directly — in the same paragraph in which it addresses Israel, as if there were no difference in status between the two — and “calls on” it to stand down.

5 minutes to Midnight

Michael Ledeen posts a most impressive and sobering article from The Intellectual Activist.

The larger evasion is this: the left senses that a regional war is coming, that Iran is hell-bent on starting it, and that there is no way to avoid it. But all of this runs directly counter to their whole world-view. Rather than questioning that world view, they simply assert that this can’t be happening. They have to believe that something, anything—no matter how implausible—will stop it from happening. If we just get everyone together and talk, and we keep tinkering with diplomatic solutions until we find something that works, surely we can find a way to avoid a regional war in the Middle East. Can’t we? Please?

And so the left confirms the right’s sense that the appeasement of the 1930s is the best historical precedent for the current era.

Fortunately, George Bush is not Neville Chamberlain. He has already waged two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Imagine if, during the 1930s, the Allied Powers had already joined forces to defeat the fascists in Spain, then invaded Italy and overthrown Mussolini’s regime. It would have made the coming conflict easier—but it would not have defanged our most dangerous enemy.

Unfortunately, George Bush is not Winston Churchill. It is as if, having suppressed fascism in Spain and Italy, we were still appeasing Germany and subordinating our interests to a wobbly consensus at the League of Nations. Just as Germany was the central enemy in the European theater of World War II, so Iran is the central enemy in the Middle East today.

MSM Amok

Is your blood pressure too low? This should fix it for you.

Or, if you’re an MSM dupe, you can just relax knowing that Mike Wallace doesn’t think the president of Iran is an anti-semite.

I’m slack-jawed at just how blind, clueless and plain dumb someone can be and still get a job on TV.

Be on the lookout

Have you seen any of these “students“?

If you can’t stage the photo

just make the caption a lie.

Even if it gets “corrected” later, you’ll still have provided the propaganda fodder you wanted.

Green Helmet Guy – Director

LGF snagged video from Zapp, a German TV program, with proof of Green Helmet Guy’s role as director.

Turns out he’s had a long career. He was doing this back in 1996!

Since all of this media scrutiny was triggered by Adnan Hajj’s poor PhotoShop skills, I wonder how long it’ll be before the nutroots claim he’s working for Karl Rove.

Meanwhile, next door in Cuba

Any rejoicing over the death (which I think has already happened) of Fidel Castro gets squelched by learning who Raúl Castro is.

Raúl was always under the influence — of alcohol and self-importance. My Cuban intelligence counterpart in those days, Sergio del Valle, who was Raúl’s closest associate going back to their early days in the Sierra Maestra, used to call his boss “Raúl the Terrible” in a semi-serious allusion to the first Russian to crown himself tsar. Raúl was Cuba’s uncrowned tsar — his official title was “Maximum General.” Fidel gave the speeches, hour after hour. Raúl ran Cuba’s economy, her foreign policy, her foreign trade, her justice system, her jails, her tourism — even her hotels and her beaches.

Raúl is generally perceived as a colorless minister of defense, but he has also been the brutal head of one of Communism’s most criminal institutions: the Cuban political police. I met him in that capacity. He was cruel and ruthless. Fidel may have conceived the terror that has kept Cuba in the Communist fold, but Raúl has been the butcher. He has been instrumental in the killing and terrorizing of thousands of Cubans, and there is no question in my mind but that he would fight tooth and nail to preserve his powers. Otherwise, sooner or later Raúl would have to account for his crimes, and I do not know him to be suicidal.

How to Lose the Long War

Andrew McCarthy argues that we’re doing it just fine.

“No,” you say, “not true. The administration is deftly running diplomatic interference for Israel, slow-walking a truce so the Israelis have time to put a hurtin’ on Hezbollah.” Really? Was that what you really thought “drive them from place to place” meant? Running interference with France while somebody else does your heavy lifting? Is this what you supposed was meant by regarding state sponsors as “hostile regimes”? We play diplo-chess for our ally while Iran not only arms and directs but, now, actually joins Hezbollah in the fighting?

I wonder if American admiration for British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be as strong if, when it came time to fight jihadists and their enablers in Afghanistan and Iraq, England figured it was good enough to run diplomatic interference with France.

This morning I heard Bush refer to Islamic fascists, and cheered. How discouraging it is at a time of war to have to cheer the president for only sounding vaguely like he did a few years ago.

Fauxtography Roundup

Over at the Zombietime blog is a nice roundup of the whole fauxtography scandal at Reuters detailing the four types of fraud committed, plus the one I linked to previously at the NYT.

Darwin meets Stalin

The International Solidarity Movement, an official organization of Useful Idiots, is sending members to deliberately put themselves in harm’s way as human shields for the Hezbo Islamofacists.

Excuse me. I don’t see the downside here.

Hat tip: LGF.

Hezbo Liars

Jonah Goldberg posts a CNN transcript.

While on the Hezbollah side, it’s really interesting – I was in ut, and they took me on this sort of guided tour of the Hezbollah- controlled territories in southern Lebanon that were heavily bombed. They are much cruder, viously. They don’t have the experience in this kind of thing. But they clearly want the story of civilian casualties out. That is their – what they’re heavily pushing, to the point where on this tour I was on, they were just making stuff up. They had six ambulances lined up in a row and said, OK, you know, brought reporters there, they said you can talk to the ambulance drivers. And then one by one, they told the ambulances to turn on their sirens and to – and people taking that picture would be reporting, I guess, the idea that these ambulances were zooming off to treat civilian casualties, when in fact, these ambulances were literally going back and forth down the street just for people to take pictures of them.

NYT Fauxtography

No, not bad photoshop work. But someone thought this photo was a staged fraud.

Then came a major retraction.

I never really thought the guy was dead. But it still looks staged to me.