MERYL YOURISH says that the enemy is winning the progaganda war: “A German TV news show segment on YouTube is racing around the blogosphere. Why? Because it is absolute proof that Hezbullah manipulates the media for their benefit.”
And the media are happy to be manipulated, apparently.
DAVID ADESNIK WONDERS if the Lebanese regret it when Israeli children are killed. “Although I suspect that Siniora personally does feel regret, his inability to say it affirms in my eyes that Arab politics takes place in a moral universe where Israeli life is worth nothing.”
THE REPUBLICAN “E-CAMPAIGN” is emailing about this story on Harold Ford, Jr. returning campaign contributions from the adult entertainment industry. Seems like nothing much to me; if this is all they can dig up, he’s looking good. More interesting was this tidbit in the same story about Ford’s support for Joe Lieberman, and another independent candidate who lost a primary:
Last month, Ford told radio talk show host Don Imus that Lieberman was a friend and had his support in the primary race for the U.S. Senate.
Lieberman’s independent run is not the only one Ford may have to contend with. Ford’s brother, Jake Ford, is running as an independent in the 9th Congressional District race in Memphis. State Sen. Steve Cohen last week won the Democratic nomination for the seat that Harold Ford Jr. now holds.
Harold Ford Jr. does not intend to get involved in the local race, he said. “I’m a Democrat. I support Democrats,” Ford said, noting that Lieberman and his brother, though both running as independents, are still Democrats.
(I’ll take a position: Steve Cohen got me tickets to see John Fogerty’s comeback show in 1986 at Mud Island, so he’s got my eternal loyalty). But come to think of it, Ford ought to be embarrassed — for returning the contributions, not for taking them. After all, porn is good for America!
MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT? Belgian police are reportedly harassing Brussels Journal blogger Paul Belien. Seems like an Article 19 human rights violation to me . . . .
If this bothers you, let ’em know.
MICHAEL RUBIN: “When it comes to radical Islam, Europe and the United States have mastered the art of repeating mistakes.”
IN THE MAIL: Harry Turtledove’s new Civil War novel, Fort Pillow.
DONALD SENSING ON THE U.K. BOMB PLOT:
If the plot had succeeded the death toll might have exceeded that of al Qaeda’s attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
As I’ve noted, the terrorists aren’t terribly bright, but they’re very persistent and they learn from their mistakes. That makes them a potent threat.
I suspect, though, that the only real solution is to go after the backers — mullahs and rich guys in Iran and Saudi Arabia, mostly — and not just keep arresting the cannon fodder. I don’t see any signs of that sort of approach, though.
UPDATE: By the way, lots of interesting posts on this at The Corner.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Mary Katharine Ham looks at some reactions.
BEST. LAMONT. SPIN. EVER. “The pro-Bush candidate just got 48% in a Democrat primary.”
This calls for some sort of a prize!
UPDATE: Tim Cavanaugh, who won’t miss Lieberman, observes: “Lieberman is possibly the least libertarian member of the United States Senate.” I dunno, there’s a lot of competition for that slot. But spinning Lamont’s victory as a libertarian triumph is — well, it’s further than even Tim is willing to go!
AUSTIN BAY says that July was a crucial month.
BRITISH TERROR PLOT FOILED:
British police said Thursday they had arrested 21 people in connection with a terror plot against airlines travelling from Britain to the United States which was “intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”
Officials raised security to its highest level – suggesting a terrorist attack may imminent— and banned handcarried luggage on all trans-Atlantic flights. Huge crowds formed at security barriers.
The extreme measures at one of the major international aviation hub sent ripple effects throughout the world. Officials at Heathrow airport cancelled most flights from Europe.
The U.S. government responded by raising its threat assessment to its highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States amid fears the plot had not been completely crushed.
Brendan Loy has a huge roundup on this story, and over at the CounterTerrorism Blog, Walid Phares has some thoughts, and questions, too.
Some people have decided that the war on terror is passe. But although you may not be interested in terrorism, terrorism is still interested in you.
Pajamas Media has a huge roundup, too.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has much more.
AN IDF BENEFIT: Massage under fire.
JOHN BATCHELOR: “Why is America waiting to be attacked by Iran?”
DOES ROBERT BYRD KNOW ABOUT THIS? An end to racially segregated classes in West Virginia. About time, I’d say . . . .
OVER AT GIZMODO, I’ve got a guest review of the Edirol R-09 digital recorder.
THE REAL WINNER FROM THE LAMONT VICTORY: Jim Geraghty, whose new book on “How 9/11 Launched the Era of Republican Leadership”
WIRED NEWS uncovers journalistic fakery — at Wired News.
Good for them, but Gelf Magazine thinks that, well, it really is good for them:
Since it is unlikely that Wired News has a higher percentage of unethical writers than other publications (after all, why should it?), the fact that two of its contributors have been found to produce bogus work in the last two years suggests it is better than other publications at rooting out cheaters. Why is that? Because it has put into place provisions that make it less likely for these guys to slip through the cracks.
Of course, that also suggests that there’s a lot of cheating going on at other journalistic outlets that never gets exposed.
DOUG WEINSTEIN ON LIEBERMAN AND LAMONT:
Let’s see if I’ve got this right. Conventional wisdom says that the country has gone progressively to the center/right. The last two Democratic presidents were centrists. The Democrats desparately want to regain control of Congress in 2006, and the White House in 2008. Joe Lieberman was the Democratic standard-bearer just six years ago, along with Al Gore. The DSCC and the Democratic establishment [aside from President Clinton] provided little or no help to Lieberman in his campaign, which is the same as opposing him. And many left-leaning Democrats are now gleeful over his defeat by a “trust fund baby” in the Connecticut primary, which makes the party as a whole look like total freaking disloyal idiots to the rest of the country. . . .
I wouldn’t be the least surprised if Lieberman runs as an Independent, kicks Lamont’s ass in the general, and then sticks it to the Democratic party forever. I wouldn’t blame him. And I say that as a loyal Democrat.
He’s not the only unhappy Democrat today.
UPDATE: Interestingly, I didn’t realize that Ned Lamont was Corliss Lamont’s son. Though I’m living proof that sons and fathers can have different politics.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jacob Weisberg says that Ned Lamont is Corliss Lamont’s great-nephew. Wikipedia says he’s Corliss’s grandson. I don’t guess it really matters, but . . . .
MORE: ReliaPundit: “I think that the fact that Joe is Jewish really hurt him with the base of the Democrats.”
Antisemitism? In Connecticut?
Meanwhile, Ilya Shapiro observes:
In all the spin about how a “moderate” cannot win given our nascent “politics of polarization,” we lose sight that Lieberman’s supposed moderation rests mostly in his even-tempered disposition. This is a man, after all, who received an 80 percent approval rating Americans for Democratic Action and only 8 percent from the American Conservative Union (less than Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer and equal to Chuck Schumer and John Kerry). Heck, even in voting to authorize President Bush to go to war in Iraq, he was joined by a majority of his colleagues (including Clinton, Schumer, John Edwards, and Minority Leader Harry Reid) in a lopsided vote that was greater than that approving the first Gulf War.
Yet Lamont adviser Jesse Jackson said in an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times Monday that “A loss for Lieberman would be a win for progressives.” Jackson went on to fault his party’s putative Vice-President — many who pulled the lever for Lamont no doubt still consider Al Gore to be President — for “embracing key elements of the conservative agenda,” including questioning certain excesses of affirmative action and supporting cuts in capital gains taxes that have ushered in a new class of investors.
Such arguments expose the nasty truth at the heart of the modern “Party of Jefferson”: You have to embrace the entire Democratic catechism (abortion on demand, racial preferences, etc.) or risk banishment from this “party of inclusion.” While accusing the GOP of being a group of intolerant extremists — so intolerant that the party establishment is funding Lincoln Chafee (who has a voting record equal to Lieberman and Clinton, and more liberal than 14 Democratic senators) against a conservative opponent — it is the Democrats who are repeatedly shown to have binding litmus tests.
It’s not a big tent. It’s a pup tent.
JACK BAUER FOR SENATE: In Connecticut and New York. “Jack Bauer is prepared to bend the rules in order to save America, again.”
ANDERSON COOPER NOTES Hezbollah media fakery. “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.”
I’m glad people are noticing. And talking about it.
WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE hate the Jews?
WORKPLACE PRIVACY takes a hit in the Ninth Circuit.
Because it’s not easy to blame Bush for this, it won’t get much attention. But that fact is indicative of our irrational and uneven treatment of these issues.
MORE ON REUTERGATE from the L.A. Weekly:
It’s been a good week for Los Angeles’ most controversial political Web site, Little Green Footballs, widely reviled by some because it takes global Islamist terrorism more seriously than, say, a Dick Cheney hunting accident.
On August 5, Little Green Footballs (LGF) provided convincing visual evidence that a Reuters photograph of the aftermath of an Israeli bombing of Beirut was a poorly Photoshopped fake. The black clouds of smoke and duplicated buildings shown in the photograph were so obviously “cloned,” in Photoshop-speak, that it seemed surprising they could escape notice on one of the world’s most prestigious news desks. But escape it they did, and the image went ’round the world, one more victory in Hezbollah’s propaganda war against Israel and the U.S.
But then, it has long been the contention of LGF’s webmaster, 53-year-old Charles Johnson, who is the co-founder of Pajamas Media, that an awful lot of dodgy news items seem to slip past the news desks of Reuters, the Associated Press, and other major media organizations and newspapers.
And his case seems to be pretty strong, doesn’t it?
HACKING THE HIMALAYAS: Xeni Jardin looks at the Tibetan diaspora.
FAUXTOGRAPHY UPDATE: The New York Times runs a correction on a misleading photo.
AT WONKETTE: Cynthia McKinney sings! And fights!
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