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« Thursday, May 8, 2008

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Friday, May 09, 2008

Obama Adviser Held Talks with Hamas

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 1:35:23 pm PDT

Another Obama adviser quietly tossed under the bus for holding talks with Hamas.

Reached for comment, Barack Obama said, “Can’t I just eat my waffle?”

Tags: LGF, Election 2008, Barack Obama, Hamas, Robert Malley

Citizens Trapped by Clashes in Beirut

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 1:09:48 pm PDT

A first person account from Beirut by Charles Chuman: Pajamas Media: Beirut Clashes Trap Citizens.

Tags: LGF, Lebanon, Hizballah, Hesbollah, Hezbollah, Civil War, Beirut

Mark Steyn vs. Muslim Critics

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 1:07:18 pm PDT

Several people emailed to recommend this video of Mark Steyn confronting some of his Islamist critics; I couldn’t get it to play, but maybe you’ll have better luck: The Agenda - Video - May 6: What is Wrong with Mark Steyn’s View of the World?

Tags: LGF, Mark Steyn, Islam, Canada, Human Rights

False Alarm: Not Al-Masri

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 11:34:21 am PDT

I wrote yesterday that it wasn’t confirmed, and today the military announced that it was indeed a false alarm: US says Qaeda chief in Iraq not captured.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military denied on Friday that Al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who carries a US bounty of five million dollars, had been captured by security forces.

State television Al-Iraqiya reported on Thursday that a man calling himself as Muhajir was captured by Iraqi forces in the northern province of Nineveh.

US military spokeswoman Major Peggy Kageleiry said the detained individual was not Muhajir, whose real name according to the military is Abu Ayyub al-Masri. “They did not catch Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. Somebody with same name but not connected with him. It is not him,” Kageleiry told AFP.

Tags: LGF, Iraq, Al Qaeda, al-masri

Jimmy Carter: Hamas PR Agent

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 10:56:24 am PDT

Here’s Jimmy Carter shilling for Hamas again, with an article in the Guardian that lets his mask slip a little more than usual: Jimmy Carter: A human rights crime.

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.

This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and fair by all international observers.

Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife, Hamas alone controls Gaza. Forty-one of the 43 victorious Hamas candidates who lived in the West Bank have been imprisoned by Israel, plus an additional 10 who assumed positions in the short-lived coalition cabinet.

Tags: LGF, Jimmy Carter, Hamas, Antisemitism

AP Discovers Terrorism

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 10:14:24 am PDT

How do you get the Associated Press to use the word “terrorism” in an article without scare quotes?

Simple. Just distort the meaning of the word so badly that it’s unrecognizable. Bam! No scare quotes! Vietnam to try American for terrorism.

HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese-American and two Vietnamese nationals will be put on trial on charges of terrorism for allegedly planning to distribute anti-government pamphlets in Vietnam, an official said Thursday.

Tags: LGF, Associated Press, Media Bias, Terrorism, Political Correctness

Obama's Negotiating Partner in Peace: Israel is a 'Stinking Corpse'

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 10:08:14 am PDT

Maybe when Barack Obama sits down for tea with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran, he can ask the mini-dictator about this little faux pas: Ahmadinejad: Israel is a ‘stinking corpse’ doomed to disappear.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday called Israel a “stinking corpse” which is doomed to disappear, as the state celebrated 60 years of independence.

“Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

Tags: LGF, Election 2008, Barack Obama, Israel, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hate Speech

Video: Islam Will Conquer Rome and Spain, America Will End

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 10:00:44 am PDT

Here’s former Jordanian “minister of religious endowment” Sheik Ali Al-Faqir appearing on Al Aqsa TV May 2, 2008, with an Islamic supremacist rant about taking over the world.

This isn’t happening on some street corner in Amman. It’s being broadcast to millions of people on Arab television. (Courtesy of MEMRI TV.)

Click picture to play video. Requires Windows Media Player; Mac users should install Flip4Mac.

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We must declare that Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, is an Islamic land, and that Spain – Andalusia – is also the land of Islam. Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic. Furthermore, we will reach beyond these countries, which are lost at one point. We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, and as it will be conquered again.

Interviewer: Allah willing.

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad.

[...]

We will face a battlefront that is broader and stronger. Its beginnings were in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Chechnya. What has begun will be completed. It will not stop.

[...]

The Zionist entity reached completion, and it is beginning to decline, until it will wane and come to its end. Similarly, America has occupied, thundered, and foamed with rage, and proclaimed, like Pharoah, “I am your supreme God,” but it will come to its end, and they have begun to realize that their end is near. We have begun to read in American and European newspapers that “our glory is on the wane, and there is nothing we can do about it.” This morning on Al-Jazeera TV, I saw American scientists and strategic theoreticians, who said that America would soon come to its end. They said it before about the USSR, and, indeed, it has come to its end, and we say now that America and the EU will come to an end, and only the rising force of Islam will prevail.

Tags: LGF, MEMRI TV, Al Aqsa TV, Jordan, al-faqir, Islamic Supremacism, Islam

Hizballah Takes Over Beirut

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 9:28:44 am PDT

The media don’t want to use the words “civil war,” but there’s very little doubt that Lebanon is in the midst of one: Hezbollah imposes control on Beirut.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group took control of the Muslim half of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government.

Security sources said at least 11 people had been killed and 30 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah, a Shi’ite political movement with a powerful guerrilla army.

The fighting, the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war, was triggered this week after the government took decisions targeting Hezbollah’s military communications network. The group said the government had declared war.

In scenes reminiscent of the darkest days of the civil war, young men armed with assault rifles roamed the streets amid smashed cars and smoldering buildings. Fighting died down by mid-morning and Hezbollah and allied fighters were in control as government supporters put down their weapons.

And Reuters has cameramen embedded with the enemy again: Mideast Conflict Photos.

Also see:
Embedded with the Enemy? - snapped shot
Michael J. Totten has a lot of coverage.
A Blog For All: How Is Reuters Getting This Photo?

Tags: LGF, Lebanon, Hizballah, Hesbollah, Hezbollah, Civil War

Friday Early Morning Open

Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:24:43 am PDT

The last thing one knows is what to put first.

— Pascal

Tags: LGF, Open Thread

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Exposing the Distortions in 'Expelled'

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 6:51:24 pm PDT

Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn’t Want You to Know...

In the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, narrator Ben Stein poses as a “rebel” willing to stand up to the scientific establishment in defense of freedom and honest, open discussion of controversial ideas like intelligent design (ID). But Expelled has some problems of its own with honest, open presentations of the facts about evolution, ID—and with its own agenda. Here are a few examples—add your own with a comment, and we may add it to another draft of this story. For our complete coverage, see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed—Scientific American’s Take.

Read the whole thing...

Tags: LGF, Ben Stein, Evolution, Expelled, Creationism, Intelligent Design

The Door Closes

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 6:45:00 pm PDT

Well, I left registration open all day, 8+ hours, but since I didn’t announce it there are only 51 hatchlings on the delousing deck tonight. Welcome, hatchlings, and fear my unblinking eye.

Unannounced openings evidently result in fewer hatchlings.

Tags: LGF, Registration

McCain on O'Reilly

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 5:04:29 pm PDT

Here’s a thread to discuss John McCain’s appearance on the Bill O’Reilly show...

Tags: LGF, Election 2008, John McCain, O'Reilly

Got a Big Al Qaeda Fish in Iraq

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 2:49:49 pm PDT

Not completely confirmed but looking good: Leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq Arrested in Mosul.

BAGHDAD — The leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed to him by the Iraqi commander of the province. There was no immediate confirmation or comment from U.S. forces on the arrest.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said “we are currently checking with Iraqi authorities to confirm the accuracy of this information.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that Mosul police “arrested one of Al Qaeda’s leaders at midnight and during the primary investigations he admitted that he is Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir.”

Tags: LGF, Iraq, Al Qaeda, al-masri

C and F: The New Creationism

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 2:35:37 pm PDT

Allen Forkum of the much-missed cartooning duo Cox & Forkum emailed to point out that he and John did a cartoon related to a subject we’ve been discussing a little bit recently at LGF.

Tags: LGF, Cox and Forkum, Cartoon, Creationism, Intelligent Design

Civil War in Lebanon?

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 11:35:31 am PDT

If it isn’t civil war yet, it’s pretty close, as Hizballah flexes its muscles in a show of power: Fighting rocks Beirut, Hezbollah defiant.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Fierce clashes raged in Beirut on Thursday after the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah said the U.S.-supported Lebanese government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

Fighters from Hezbollah and the allied Amal group exchanged assault rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades with pro-government gunmen in several areas of the capital in the worst domestic fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.

Tags: LGF, Lebanon, Hizballah, Hesbollah, Hezbollah, telecommunications

Installing MS Core Fonts in Ubuntu and Fedora 8

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 11:05:58 am PDT

Here’s an open thread, as I install the Microsoft Truetype “core” fonts in Ubuntu and Fedora 8.

This is the font package that’s on nearly every Mac and PC, including Verdana, Arial, and Georgia — fonts that are used on 90%+ of the web pages in existence, but don’t come installed by default on Linux. And LGF looks much better with Verdana and Trebuchet MS installed.

In Ubuntu, it’s very simple to install these fonts with the apt-get utility. Just open a Terminal window and type:

$ sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

Then log out and back in, or restart.

In Fedora 8, you need to install the ‘chkfontpath’ package first; here’s the procedure that worked for me:

$ su (enter superuser password)
$ yum -y install chkfontpath
$ rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ exit (get out of superuser mode)

Again you’ll need to log out and log in to see the fonts.

UPDATE at 5/8/08 11:32:25 am:

If you’re a newbie to the command line interface, don’t type the dollar signs in the examples above — they’re the default shell prompts you see when entering commands, and that’s the usual way of showing CLI examples.

UPDATE at 5/8/08 3:11:01 pm:

LGF reader addison posted an alternate method for installing the fonts in Fedora 8, if the above doesn’t work:

$ wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
$ yum install rpm-build cabextract
$ rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
$ yum localinstall —nogpgcheck /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm

Tags: LGF, Linux, Technology, ubuntu, fedora, MS Core Fonts

Vietnam Springs Into Action, Fights Terrorism

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 9:11:09 am PDT

The Communist government of Vietnam would like us all to know that they are committed to counter-terrorism. They said this at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, of which they are a member.

Vietnam is committed to counter-terrorism and the non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons under international treaties to which it is a party and resolutions of the UN Security Council.

Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN Ambassador Hoang Chi Trung delivered the statement at the open debate of the Security Council on the work of the 1267 Committee, the Counter-Terrorism Committee and the 1540 Committee, in New York on May 6.

Since becoming a member of the UN Security Council, Vietnam has made constructive contributions to the work of these three committees, Trung said. He particularly noted Vietnam’s assumption of the vice chairmanship of the Counter-Terrorism Committee.

And to demonstrate their dedication to fighting terrorism in all its forms, they also announced today that they’re charging a Vietnamese American and two Vietnamese nationals with terrorism for distributing pamphlets.

HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese-American and two Vietnamese nationals will be put on trial on charges of terrorism for allegedly planning to distribute anti-government pamphlets in Vietnam, an official said Thursday.

This is the outcome of a deliberate, sustained effort by repressive regimes to redefine the concept of “terrorism,” so that it includes any activity the regimes don’t like. And it’s being enabled by the corrupt UN, of course.

Tags: LGF, Vietnam, Terrorism, Communism, Free Speech, United Nations

Hizballah: Lebanese Government Declared War on Us

Thu, May 8, 2008 at 8:10:27 am PDT

Things are heating up in Lebanon after the government began a crackdown on Hizballah’s illegal telecommunications network: Hezbollah says Beirut government declares war.

BEIRUT, May 8 (Reuters) - The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday the U.S.-supported Beirut government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

Hezbollah launched a new street campaign on Wednesday, piling pressure on the government after it declared the network illegal and removed the head of airport security, a figure close to the group, from his post.

Supporters of Hezbollah and its allies have blocked roads leading to the airport — Lebanon’s only air link to the outside world — and other main streets, paralysing much of the capital.

The head of airport security in Beirut was a Hizballah puppet? Lovely.