September 30, 2007

The JPost explains (sort of)

Khaled Abu Tuomeh has written an explanation of how the Jerusalem Post was gulled on the supposed Gaza "honor killing". It is not entirely inconsistent with my guess of yesterday. Apparently, the reporter was gulled by some phone calls from "Fatah" telling him the video, readily available on the Internet with Iraqi provenance, was of a crime committed by Hamasmembers.

Unfortunately, Tuomeh gives us no proof the phone calls were inded from Fatah, though it is possible; his explanation is insufficient and self-serving. He lays blame on the Israeli military for his own failure to authenticate:

Since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, the IDF has banned Israeli journalists from entering the area. Consequently, the Israeli media (and many foreign journalists) are forced to rely on local reporters and Fatah and Hamas officials as a main source of information.

As the French say, Qui s'excuse, s'accuse. Or is it the other way around in this case? Tuomeh doesn't seem capable of taking responsibility for what happened and his own role in it. Everything is impersonally written, yet this is clearly a personal event.

Who is Tuomeh and how is he being used and for what end? We also don't know the veracity of his previous report of lurid Fatah videos confiscated by Hamas - or where that came from.

In the larger scheme of things, this is just another small incident, but it is also another chink in the grand myth of media objectivity. Who is reliable? Probably no one.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:51 PM
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September 29, 2007

Missing at the Jerusalem Post - can someone figure this out? (UPDATED)

Only an hour or so ago I linked from the Pajamas Media scroll to a gruesome story at the Jerusalem Post. My title for the link (very close to the JPost hed) was and is Another "honor" killing: 16-year old girl lynched in Gaza.

As you can see from clicking on the link, however, the story is now gone (4:50PM Pacific), replaced by the words: Article content not available. Evidence of the full story is still there, however, if you look at the left of the page where their title remains and the notation that their have been 40 comments.

What gives? Computer error or withdrawal of the story?

For the record,the study detailed a horrifying honor killing in Gaza, which, evidently, had been recorded on video. Here is the story (by Khaled Abu Toameh) for your edification:

This time it's the brutal murder of a 16-year-old girl in the Gaza Strip. Her crime: "dishonoring" her family. Of course, there is no way to verify the allegations against her and other females who have fallen victim to "honor killings."

The gruesome murder occurred a few weeks ago, when the girl - who looks much younger than her age - was dragged into the street and handed to an mob of angry young men.
E
yewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that many of those who participated in the lynch were Hamas members and relatives of the girl.

A five-minute video obtained by the Post over the weekend reveals the savagery and mercilessness of the killers.

What's really disturbing is that none of those at the crime scene tried to intervene to save the girl's life.

More than 20 young men are seen beating, stabbing and kicking the little girl before smashing her head with large stones.

It's not easy to watch such a video. The scenes of the girl lying on the ground as frenzied men trample her are unimaginable.

At one point, the girl tries to cover her head with her hands to avoid the kicking. She then tries to rise to her feet, only to be stabbed repeatedly by one of the men.

As she collapses, one of the attackers pulls down her skirt so that the rest of his friends will not see her underwear. The girl is required to maintain her "modesty" even as she is being preyed upon.

And just when you think the lynch is about to end, someone emerges from the crowd carrying a large white stone.
He throws the stone at the girl's back as she lays face down, motionless.

Seconds later, another man throws a large stone at the back of her head. The video ends with the girl laying in a pool of blood.

Mission accomplished. Hours later, a few local reporters sent a terse statement to their news organizations informing them of another "honor killing" in the Gaza Strip. Not a word about the way the girl had been lynched. The story barely made it to the mainstream media.
I asked a Hamas security official if he had been aware of the incident.
"There have been a number of cases in the Gaza Strip in the past few months, but we didn't hear about this specific killing," he replied. "In any case, we are against these killings because we don't want anyone to take the law into his own hands."

Needless to say, no one has been arrested, despite the public nature of the killing.

According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, at least 11 women have been killed in the Strip since the beginning of the year in what are traditionally known as "honor killings."

The most recent took place in late July, when three sisters were fatally stabbed by male relatives in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Sources in the Strip said many cases were never been reported, with the victims buried secretly.

UPDATE: Reference to the article in the "Talkback" section on the left, which registered the number of comments at 40, has now also been removed.

MORE: I just went over to Gateway Pundit and was updated on this. That this is an old video is more than a little bit worrisome. The Jerusalem Post must make very clear to everyone how this error was made, because it is not a minor one. Only yesterday they published another story by the same author, which was also hugely derogatory about life in Gaza. If you are going to publish matter that is that strong, you have to stand behind its authenticity or everything will be doubted. This is Journalism 101. Just because the Post is admired by many readers of this and similar sites does not free them to leave something like this unexplained.

AND: Just a theory, fwiw, playing my old crime writer game over what happened... The earlier article referred to above was tremendously humiliating to Palestinian authorities, imputing rife homosexual orgies to Fatah and pederasty to Hamas. Perhaps someone laid a trap for its author... Abu Toameh... out of vengeance or to discredit him. Who knows? In any case, he fell for something.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:40 PM
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Gingmaker?

Now that Newt Gingrich has done the (relatively) inevitable and taken himself out of the presidential hunt, perhaps he will emerge as something of a kingmaker in still the open Republican race. (Hillary has the Democratic nomination completely in the bag, I'm assuming.) As the AP writes:

Over the past few months, Gingrich had stoked speculation he might enter the crowded GOP field. He noted that Republicans, especially conservatives, were unhappy with the candidates already in the race.

Yet he also has spoken positively of all the leading contenders, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Call me cynical, but something tells me Newt will not award his backing for nothing. [Sec'y of State? -ed. Or a good talk show in prime times.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:54 AM
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September 27, 2007

Sidney vs. Charles

I noticed today via LGF that Sidney Blumenthal is inadvertently taking off after Charles Johnson. I say inadvertently, because I doubt even Sidney is so ideologically straight-jacketed to think that Charles works with Karl Rove. So I'm not certain who Sidney was talking about (he doesn't name anyone naturally) when, in his impassioned defense of Dan Rather, of all people, on Salon today, Blumenthal writes:

Within minutes of the conclusion of the broadcast, conservative bloggers launched a counterattack. The chief of these critics was a Republican Party activist in Georgia. Almost certainly, these bloggers, who had been part of meetings or conference calls organized by Karl Rove's political operation, coordinated their actions with Rove's office.

Charles - perhaps the pivotal blogger in the unmasking of Rather for having duplicated the forged document, supposedly written on a period Selectric, with Microsoft Word and then matching his creation and the copy perfectly with a gif file - appropriately laughs off Blumenthal's accusation with the back of the hand.

But I would like to add a bit more - because I am probably among the few people on the planet who actually knows both men. I had dinner with Blumenthal back in the Eighties when a mutual friend, thinking we had things in common (we did then), introduced us. Charles, as many reading this are aware, I came to know through blogging and the formation of Pajamas Media.

So here's my take:

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most classical cases of projection I have ever read. Sidney Blumenthal - the consummate insider, a man who has not changed his world view or Beltway allegiances for decades - cannot conceive independent citizens like Charles Johnson exist. It has to be some kind of orchestrated plot, some nefarious clandestine campaign, because that is the way Sidney knows life to be. But, luckily for the rest of us, it's not.

Charles Johnson is a lone wolf and far more bohemian and original than Sidney Blumenthal. He is, in fact, one of the more interesting people I have ever met and, despite what some have written about him, one of the least racist (and not just because he spent most of his life playing backup for black jazz musicians.) The idea that Charles works with or even knows Karl Rove is ludicrous.

As for the larger theme of Blumenthal's piece, the implication that Rather should be exonerated because of the greater truth that Bush was a National Guard slacker even if the documents were fake, it is such a pathetic argument I can't believe anyone wants to make it. But Sidney does. Talk about reification.

Posted by Roger at 4:50 PM
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Edwards Takes "Principled Stand"

Now there's a headline that calls for a lawyer joke. But let's just start with a direct quote from the candidate, who has just announced he is taking public financing for his campaign. [But what about his 28,000 square foot house?-ed. It's been mortgaged in a Monopoly game.]:

"This is not about a money calculation," Edwards told CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley on his way to an event in Durham, North Carolina. "This is about taking a stand, a principled stand, and I believe in public financing."

I also believe in magic in a young girl's heart, etc. How do these people say these things? I must say I admire Edwards for being able to pronounce those words with a straight face. Must be those years of courtroom experience. "Ladies and gentleman of the jury..."

And speaking of courtrooms, since it doesn't seem likely that his campaign is going anywhere anyway, maybe John should book on with Phil Spector for the record producer's retrial. That's a job that should pay pretty well. I understand the download numbers for "River Deep, Mountain High" over at iTunes are better than ever. [No, you don't. Now you're lying.-ed. Okay, okay.]

UPDATE: Fausta Wertz has reminded me that this is indeed a marriage made in (hair) heaven.

Posted by Roger at 1:53 PM
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September 26, 2007

Something in the CBS water

What is it about CBS that people who work for them become delusional? The network is hitting the Daily Double today with Katie C. bloviating on Iraq and good old Dan turning weepy over his lawsuit and implying he'd like to see George Bush deposed. I assume that's about the extent of the President's National Guard Service, although I don't see how that's relevant to whether Rather promulgated forged documents on the subject on Sixty Minutes. I can't imagine why a judge would let such a thing in, but who knows... what's Lance Ito doing these days?

Meanwhile, Katie is reassuring an audience of the already firmly convinced that the Iraq War was a "mistake." That's indeed conventional wisdom in the MSM from a very conventional woman, but perhaps a tad early (fifty years?) for the history books. Also, it has the kind of (could we even say racist?) obliviousness we have come to expect from members of her class - coupled with the clich´s about no-Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq that have been contradicted a thousand times to no avail. I guess she doesn't read much outside staff papers. One thing I'm certain she doesn't read is Iraq the Model because it is written by, um, real Iraqis who had to live under Saddam. Was the war a mistake for them?

Posted by Roger at 4:18 PM
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What does it take to convict a celebrity of murder in Los Angeles?

Tactical nukes on Warner Brothers?... maybe.

First OJ, then Robert Blake, now Phil... oh, to be a fancy defense lawyer in Southern California! Now there's a gig.

Posted by Roger at 2:50 PM
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September 25, 2007

Bush and the "Democratic" future of IRaq.

George Bush said something interesting in a recent interview:

"It's different being a candidate and being the president," Bush said in an Oval Office interview. "No matter who the president is, no matter what party, when they sit here in the Oval Office and seriously consider the effect of a vacuum being created in the Middle East, particularly one trying to be created by al Qaeda, they will then begin to understand the need to continue to support the young democracy."

What Bush is recognizing here is something that is becoming increasingly obvious - the left/right dichotomy in our society is a phony exploited by those who lust for power. This is an obvious problem for democracies in general, but we are at a dramatic crossroads in that regard.

In the future, everything will be situational, just as it has been in the past. Would Al Gore - now making fame and fortune on the global warming-oscar-nobel prize lecture circuit - have gone into Iraq himself if he had won in 2000? Of course, there's no way of knowing this side of the space/time continuum, but I wouldn't bet against it. Clinton was not hesitant to use power in Bosnia and who knows how he would have reacted after 9/11? Perhaps more "arrogantly" than Bush has. The likes of Glenn Greenwald, instead of complaining about the fixation on Ahmadinejad, could have been arguing for the Iranian's extinction. Ideology has become a form of bourgeois objectification in our society - a crutch for non-thinking.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:27 AM
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Why do Sean Penn, Danny Glover and now Kevin Spacey love the dictator Chavez?

Maybe they crave a mean director (not as many of those in Hollywood as there used to be).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:31 AM
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September 24, 2007

Will the left respond to Ahmadinejad's homophobic insanity?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made one of the most insane and reactionary statements I have heard a national leader say in public ever at Columbia today: 'In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who has told you that we have it.'

Yet he still was well received in the audience. How in the world could they do that? Let us see now if the supposedly pro-gay left wakes up and sees where the danger really is. I'm not holding my breath. They didn't wake up in the 1930s - why should they now?

Posted by Roger at 12:08 PM
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September 23, 2007

Roger Kimball on Columbia's Bollinger

President Bollinger's sophomoric conception of free speech is precisely the sort of supine intellectualism that, if consistently embraced, would make free speech impossible. President Bollinger primly lectures us that "It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas," etc. But he is quite wrong about that. By providing a madman like Ahmadinejad with a platform at Columbia University, President Bollinger has in effect welcomed him into the community of candid reasoners. He has granted him a patent of legitimacy that no amount of "dialogue and reason" can dissipate. In this case, "listening" is indeed tantamount to an endorsement. It reduces free speech to a species of political capitulation and renders dialogue indistinguishable from a suicide pact.

Word.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:35 PM
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New York Times: Mea Culpa - twice!

I apologize on Pajamas Media to PJM's Jim Hanson and to everybody else for actually believing the NYT was not guilty over the Moveon/Betray-us ad. Live and learn (and live and learn and live and learn and...)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:55 PM
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September 22, 2007

OJ, Dan Rather and now... Lee Bollinger

Everybody wants to get in the act these days. Nobody wants to be ignored. And the Hell with Warhol. Fifteen minutes is way too short.

What other possible explanation is there for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invitation to speak ... excuse me, answer questions ... at Columbia University than to make its relatively obscure president Lee Bollinger famous?

Columbia, of course, has its public explanation for the invitation: we need to know more about what the Iranian president really thinks. Come again? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's views are better known than almost anyone's in the world. We hear them on a daily basis from numerous sources, including the man himself. At this moment "Ahmadinejad" generates 8,540,000 hits on Google in that spelling alone. The notion that one hour before an audience of Columbia University students will add anything to this but canned responses is ridiculous.

To call this a free speech issue is also absurd since Ahmadinejad's speech (unlike many citizens of his country) has not been in the slightest restricted. Quite the reverse. He has an unlimited global megaphone.

So Lee Bollinger, in his narcissistic pomposity, is giving status to a psychotic racist and Holocaust denier. Good for Mr. Bollinger. To paraphrase what Freud said of the Gestapo, I wish him well.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:53 AM
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September 21, 2007

Dan Rather, OJ and the Culture of the Delusional Celebrity

Howard Kurtz's interview of Dan Rather in the WaPo this morning moved me to get quickly essayish.... My article begins this way:

It's very unfair, of course, to compare Dan Rather to OJ Simpson - Simpson killed people - but both reemerged at roughly the same time and represent extraordinary examples of a kind of sociopathic behavior created in part by our culture of celebrity.

We have lived for some time in a society in which stardom seems to motivate people to lose contact with reality. The more attention they get - the crazier that get. And if they feel that attention diminishing, they act out to regain it. It’s like a drug - media crack cocaine....

The rest is at PJM.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:24 AM
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September 20, 2007

Vilsack is a "nice boy"

When a pol rips into another pol's personal life these days, I immediately think what's in his (the first pol's) closet (figuratively and literally). Tom Vilsack is the latest pompous pot to call the kettle black, attacking Giuliani's private life in the ex-Gov's role as newbie Hillary (!) supporter. Is that supposed to be a joke? Vilsack isn't famous for his sense of yu-mah, but who knows? [Maybe he's just jealous of Bill and Monica.-ed. Hey, I never thought of that.]

Posted by Roger at 11:44 AM
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Roll on, Columbia, Roll On

As most readers know, those worldly "progressives" [sic] at Columbia University are hosting a speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the Iranian president addresses the thugocrats and parking violators in the General Assembly. Freedom of speech, doncha know? At Columbia it evidently extends to Holocaust deniers and adherents of the belief that global chaos will bring on the Mahdi (Shiite messiah).

I have a question for the Columbia crowd, since Holocaust deniers are welcome, would you allow a speaker in favor of a return to black slavery? I hope not. Well, that's how I feel about Holocaust deniers.

What are the speaker rules at Columbia? Does anybody know? How far can you go? Please leave the info here, if you have it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:59 AM
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September 19, 2007

Enduring Al Dura - the dam may have broken

PJM's Nidra Poller has been covering the ins and outs of the Al Dura trial in Paris. Other than Richard Landes, no one else that I know of is devoting this kind of attention to it. The mainstream media barely mention it.

Yet this case is epochal. The photo of young Mohammed Al Dura shielded by his father from Israeli bullets has been sent round the world hundreds of times and helped inspire the Intifada. I remember seeing it on several dozens walls, including the fence of the Jardin du Luxembourg, the last time I was in Paris.

Many have accused it of being a fake. The original videotape rushes were never released by France 2 to determine authenticity, incredible as that may seem because it has been the subject of several trials. (They don't have disovery in France.)

But a French judge FINALLY demanded the obvious. Nidra was virtually the only reporter there.

Posted by Roger at 5:42 PM
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September 18, 2007

Dalrymple: Life in the Multikultihaus

In a characteristically brilliant essay, this one shorter than usual, Theodore Dalrymple - one of the finest writers and thinkers in the anglosphere - defines the rise of radical Islam as the Marxism of our time in the manner it attracts (so far largely European) youth.

Best news of all for the Islamists, however, comes from Germany. Two of the men that the German police arrested in early September for plotting a series of huge explosions in the country were young German converts to Islam. It is impossible to know how many such German converts there are, but it is thought to run into tens of thousands, principally men; in the nature of things, it is also uncertain how many of them are attracted to extremism, but few people are so attracted by moderation that they are converted by it.

The man believed to be the leader of the little group, Fritz G., the son of a doctor and an engineer, was himself a student of engineering, of mediocre attainment. He grew up in Ulm, where a quarter of the population is now Muslim, and at the time of his parents’ divorce, when he was 15, he began to frequent the Islamic Information Center of Ulm, and also the comically named Multikultihaus in the neighboring town of Neu-Ulm, where young men of jihadist views, including Mohammed Atta, had long congregated. In 2004, he was spotted at the Ulm Islamic center, selling a journal called Think in the Islamic Way. In December of that year, the police found propaganda in favor of Osama bin Laden in his car. In 2006, he went to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

You should read it all, of course, but what Dalrymple omits, although others have observed it, makes Islamism even more dangerous than Marxism. All Marx, the atheist, ever promised was economic equality (and maybe a little less alienation). How piddling is that compared to eternal bliss in Heaven under Allah.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:42 PM
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"Fame... I want to live forevuh!"

I have a new hero and his name is Tomoji Tanabe, currently the world's oldest man at 112 (though, since he is a teetotaller, I'm not sure I want to hang with him). What's fascinating, though not unexpected, is that according to this article Japan leads the world in centenarians with 30,000 expected by the end of this month.

Tanabe-san wants to live forever. Me too. As long there's good sushi, I'm in. (I figure sex at 406 will have lost its interest, but who knows? What's the half-life of Viagra?)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:51 AM
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September 16, 2007

The OJness of it all

As a fair percentage of the known world, and some of the unknown, must know by now, OJ is back (behind bars). Watching Greta Van Susteren tonight is like being lost in a time warp, the same faces, the same voices, out of 1994. The commentators seem energized and relieved to have the Juice back as their prime subject - no Iran/Iraq/al Qaeda to depress us ... and Anna Nicole had long since run out of gas. It's all OJ all the time. Let the good times roll. The lion can lie down with the lamb. Geraldo can be friends with Michelle again.

But wait.

That old Scrooge Roger L. Simon spent his entire Sunday writing an article relating OJ to 9/11 of all things (well sort of). And explaining something of his own political evolution. Look for it on Pajamas on Monday morning - OJ Changed My Life.

Posted by Roger at 9:53 PM
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Why the Rinky Dink Antiwar Demonstrations

The propagandists at Xinhua say there were "tens of thousands" at the DC antiwar demonstration yesterday. The VOA says more like five thousand. However many people you agree showed up - the AP says "several" thousand - the number is pretty pathetic. In a country of three hundred million, if you can't muster up even fifty thousand people against a war, the event is basically meaningless, barely even news. You could probably drum up more than that for fly-fisherman's rights. (From having been at many demonstrations, my eyeballs tell me even the VOA number is exaggerated.)

According to the same AP article, about a thousand counter demonstrators showed up. I can sympathize with them, but I wonder if their presence just gives publicity to and magnifies the puny crowd the Sheehanites generated, gives an excuse for the media to spend more time on the non-event.

What's interesting is why this low turnout when, according to many polls, the public is supposedly massively against the war. If they are so antiwar, they certainly are pretty apathetic about it. This is another example of why Iraq is not Vietnam when filling the streets with demonstrators was a simple matter.

This also may mean that the public opinion polls themselves are not a decent measure of how people really feel. Although pollsters try, polls in general are particularly poor at measuring the depth of people's convictions or natural human ambivalence. Ambivalent people don't tend to get on a bus to go to a demonstration.

Maybe if Ron Paul, not Cindy Sheehan, led the antiwar movement, more people would show up. His supporters sure don't suffer from ambivalence.

Posted by Roger at 8:05 AM
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September 14, 2007

Has Ron Paul peaked?

In the latest Fox News Poll, Paul has declined from 3 percent of the vote last month to 2 percent now. An interesting stat is that with Gingrich in the race, he declines further to 1 percent. But Gingrich is only garnering a puny 4 percent himself. Does that mean that one in four Gingrich voters would be former Paul voters? Not very flattering to Newt... Or a strange commentary on the Paulites, since Gingrich is a complete hawk on the war. Go figure.

Meanwhile, there was a big Thompson bubble on Rasmussen that didn't appear at all on the Fox News Poll. Of course, Rasmussen is one-day poll but still... Go figure again.

Maybe the late Pauline Kael had a point when she famously said: "I don't know how Nixon got elected. No one I know voted for him." Or something like that.

UPDATE: Oh, by the way, speaking of polling or Pauling (not Linus), this is the Daily Paul, in case you haven't read it. I discovered its existence via the Pajamas Media referrers log, where they are quite active. They're obviously quite interested in polls or... [Stop that.-ed. Okay, okay.]

Posted by Roger at 11:51 PM
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Scenes from the Class Struggle in Studio City

I was in Studio City this evening doing an errand when Sheryl called me on the cell. She wanted some "very good tomatoes" for a crudo pasta she was making. Studio City is a relatively upscale part of LA's SF Valley (for those few left who don't know) and I was yards away from that very upscale super market Gelson's, so I did a u-ey (don't tell the LAPD) and pulled into their parking lot.

When I got out of the car and approached the market, I was immediately confronted by one of those sign-up petition card tables, displaying a wide banner: IMPEACH CHENEY.

Well, I thought, they're in good territory for that. Studio City probably votes about 94% Democratic.

But no one was stopping to sign. What was going on, I wondered? Bush's speech last night must have been successful beyond anyone's imagination.

Drawing closer to the super market entrance, I could see the table more clearly. There was the explanation... Just beneath the boldface Impeach Cheney was the following in smaller print: www.larouche.com.

Lyndon LaRouche - some things never die. His supporters smiled at me with the plastic grin of cultists. "You guys like Ron Paul?" I asked. One of them nodded. I nodded back and walked inside for my tomatoes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:16 PM
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September 13, 2007

In Praise of Victor Davis Hanson

I admire classical historian Victor Davis Hanson more with each articles of his I read. He is a man of gret knowledge and great courage. Today he has a piece on Real Clear Politics - A New Strain of Anti-Semitism is Spreading - that clearly and eloquently expresses what, alas, many of us already know. The disease we thought had been staunched after World War II is coming back quickly in a virulent strain.

Who recently said: "These Jews started 19 Crusades. The 19th was World War (1). Why? Only to build Israel."

Some holdover Nazi?

Hardly. It was former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of Turkey, a NATO ally. He went on to claim that the Jews -- whom he refers to as "bacteria" -- controlled China, India and Japan, and ran the United States.

Who alleged: "The Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs."

A conspiracy nut?

Actually, it was former Democratic U.S. Sen. James Abourezk of South Dakota. He denounced Israel on a Hezbollah-owned television station, adding: "I marveled at the Hezbollah resistance to Israel. . . . It was a marvel of organization, of courage and bravery."

Read the rest, as they say. I am proud we have VDH as a PajamasXpress blogger.

Posted by Roger at 12:51 PM
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Edwards and the Philosophy of "As If"

John Edwards - our most inauthentic candidate... and that's sayin' something - often puts me in mind of Hans Vaihinger's philosophy of "as if," which "proposed that man willingly accept falsehoods or fictions in order to live peacefully in an irrational world," according to the Encyclopdia Britannica.

Today, Edwards, via the "as if" world of advertising, will be responding to Bush's Iraq speech in a truly Vaihingerian manner: The ad was taped at Edwards' home in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the style of an Oval Office address, with him sitting at a desk and speaking straight to the camera, with American flag in the background

"As if," indeed.

Posted by Roger at 12:13 PM
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September 12, 2007

Mysterious Rave Book Review

A close family member - sorry, I can't reveal the name because even The Name of This Book Is Secret - just got a rave review in Publisher's Weekly:

The Name of This Book Is Secret
Pseudonymous Bosch, illus. by Gilbert Ford. Little, Brown, $16.99 (362p)
ISBN 978-0-316-11366-3
Blending the offbeat humor of Lemony Snicket and insight into the
preadolescent psyche à la Jerry Spinelli with the captivating conundrums of
Blue Balliett, the debut novel from a pseudonymous author is equal parts
supernatural whodunit, suspense-filled adventure and evocative coming-of-age
tale. When an unlikely pair of 11-year-old outsiders--survivalist Cassandra
and aspiring stand-up comedian Max-Ernest--team up to solve a mystery
surrounding the alleged death of an old magician and the strange and
wondrous possessions he left behind, they unwittingly cross paths with the
villainous Dr. L and his ageless accomplice Ms. Mauvais, who are obsessed
with finding the magician's notebook. After the diabolical duo shows up at
Cass and Max-Ernest's school, one of their classmates (a gifted artist named
Benjamin) goes missing. Convinced that Benjamin has been kidnapped and faces
mortal danger, Cass and Max-Ernest track the doctor and his glove-wearing
sidekick to an exclusive and remote "sensorium" cum spa, where they uncover
an arcane, alchemical, potentially apocalyptic bombshell. Relayed by an
often witty, sometimes arch narrator, and loaded with brainteasers--anagrams,
coded messages, palindromes and more--as well as such bounty as a brief and
idiosyncratic history of Benito Mussolini, the definition of synesthesia and
how Earl Grey tea got its name, Bosch's deliberately eccentric offering is
likely to acquire a cult following. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)

If you have an intelligent young person in your family - or indeed if you are an intelligent young person yourself - or feel like one - you might want to buy/gift this book at the Amazon link above.

You can guess the identity of Pseudonymous Bosch in the comments, but, sorry, I'm not tellin'.

Posted by Roger at 10:35 AM
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September 11, 2007

Has Sandy Berger got Hillary in his pants?

I was stunned to read on the Volokh Conspiracy that Hillary Clinton has Sandy "Pants" Berger as one of her foreign policy advisers. Not only does that show "poor judgment," as Jonathan Adler writes on Volokh, it demonstrates a kind of contempt for the law and the truth (areas where Berger has shown himself to be dodgy, to say the least) that is quite disturbing. This is far worse than the Norman Hsu affair, which was bad enough. Hsu represents the standard form political corruption with which we are all, alas, familiar (unless it turns out he was an agent of the Chinese government). But Berger walked off with significant National Security documents from the National Archives?! It boggles the mind that Hillary would use him as an adviser - unless he has something on her... in which case... we're in for a helluva ride.

Posted by Roger at 8:57 PM
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A Hole in the Desert

This is the kind of Israeli action you can't help but love - right in the face of Bashar and his fascist cronies. It also sends a message to the religio-psychos in Tehran. Those Israeli bombers strike deep.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:10 PM
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September 11 book review

For those who haven't noticed, my review of Norman Podhoretz's World War IV is up on Pajamas. I took more time than usual writing this one because a. I didn't want to be misconstrued on such an important subject and b. Norman has been a hero of mine since I was a teenager. I used to read Commentary when I was in high school (I know, I know, what a nerd - and we didn't even have that term then - nerd - and I had never heard of a neocon.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:02 AM
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September 10, 2007

Hillary and the mother's milk

I wonder if the fresh-faced Hillary Rodham, Wellesley student, the NYT has been hyping of late had any idea of the ugly muck she would have to wade through for the rest of her life in pursuit of the power and the glory. Money, as the cliche goes, is the mother's milk of politics. That's been true all our lives. McCain -Feingold solved nothing. One of things about the Thompson campaign is that he has been doing well without a lot of money (ahead in today's Rasmussen). If that keeps up, maybe he will prove that you can run without such a ton of cash.... of course, he's an actor and all but... with the current insatiable media, almost anyone credible gets a huge amount of attention. Maybe the ability to buy endless ads doesn't amount to so much anymore. People tune them out. I know I dod.

Posted by Roger at 10:37 PM
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The New Republic Scandal: Where is Martin Peretz?

It's hard to know what influence Martin Peretz - the owner of The New Republic from 1975 until this year - has on his old magazine anymore. But the man whose writings I have known for many years, I would imagine would be hugely disturbed by the revelations about the magazine he lead for decades.

The Beauchamp Affair is far worse, in my view, than the Stephen Glass Scandal of "Shattered Glass" that besmirched TNR several years ago, though evidently did not improve their fact-checking capabilities. The Glass Scandal was about the pathetic ambitions of a neurotic young writer willing to do anything for his personal glory. Not pretty, but something out of Balzac with which we are all familiar. Beauchamp's "Shock Troops" knowingly misrepresents the actions of the US military during time of war. Something on a truly different level.

I am wondering why Peretz is allowing the stonewalling on this matter to continue. If he thinks this about "conservative" blogs or some such, he is completely mistaken. This is about integrity and the validity of the magazine to which he gave so much of his life.

By the way, I wrote Franklin Foer, current editor of The New Republic, in advance of the publication of the PJM story today for a comment. I heard nothing.

Posted by Roger at 11:29 AM
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September 9, 2007

Hot Media Story on Pajamas tomorrow

I can't tell what it is because we have embargoed it until noon tomorrow Eastern, nine Pacific, to give the target a chance to respond. It's the polite thing to do, doncha know, although I am not convinced they would do the same with us. I also suspect they will not respond and stonewall, but I could be surprised. You're free to guess who it is, but I ain't tellin'.

UPDATE: The cat is out of the bag.... went a little early because leaked. (YEs, that happens as easily in new media as elsewhere.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:36 PM
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September 8, 2007

Dartmouth Dilutes Democracy

I have been watching from afar as my alma mater Dartmouth College, which seems to have produced more than its share of high-powered middle-aged bloggers, has been roiled in a battle over openness since "outsiders" (intelligent alumni) were freely elected to their Board of Trustees. The other shoe dropped today when an announcement was made that the Trustees would be enlarged with eight new members who would be appointed, not elected, obviously vitiating the power of the elected members.

In other words, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees becomes something like the Assembly of Experts in Iran, electing the college president much in the way the "Experts" elect the Supreme Leader.

What a horrid lesson in democracy to Dartmouth students. The people who put this system in action consider themselves "progressives" but are in reality reactionaries. And sadly they are representative of American academia in general. As goes the Ivy League, so go the rest of the sheep.

The precocious Dartmouth undergrad Joe Malchow, who has already worked for the Wall Street Journal, has the full story.

UPDATE: The Powerline Dartmouth brigade logs in. From Scott Johnson: Dartmouth's board has now acted to quell the disturbance of alumni in Dartmouth's governance. In doing so, the board has achieved by diktat what it could not achieve by consent. It has made the opening represented by the election of Rodgers, Robinson, and Zywicki Dartmouth's Prague Spring.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:06 PM
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Pavarotti Funeral Slide Show

Definitely worth a look, if you haven't seen - includes the great (Zeffirelli) and the not so great (Kofi).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:12 AM
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Guess who thinks it's REALLY Bin Laden

Romney says Bin Laden "deluded."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:41 AM
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September 7, 2007

Where I'll be on Saturday evening

At the art opening in Santa Monica of my friend Roman Genn. The show this time is Roman's interpretation of the Presidents.

You may have seen Roman's political cartoons and paintings on Pajamas, NRO and the Los Angeles Tmes.

When I wrote about his last opening I said I would be among those downing the "cheap chardonnay." Roman, a Russian by birth, complained - said he would be serving primo vodka. And he did. (But that's not the only reason I went).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:18 PM
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Live in New York on Saturday Night, it's ... Osama BIN Laden!

His latest video has got to be a comedy act... or at least a special gift to wannabe stand-up comics everywhere, right down to the phony beard. He loves Noam Chomsky... but how about Ron Paul? Osama would seem to be more in synch with the paleocon/libertarian with his no-taxes-under-Islam gambit than with the socialist Noam. But no matter - wait for the next video. Pretty soon Bin Laden will be declaring for President and joining everybody else in the tedious debates.

But more importantly - doesn't he now remind you of one of the Three Aviators in the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera?

BTW, my guess about the true author (or scriptwriter) of this tape is here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:50 PM
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Pajamas Media Front Page

We've been adjusting our front page to accommodate the larger amount of original content we are now running from various venues (Bucharest tomorrow). Hope you like it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:40 PM
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September 6, 2007

iPhone lust, continued

Yes, I continue to follow the great iPhone saga, wondering if this is the time to jump (now that the price has dropped $200). Mark Anderson in the Pajamas office was a proud early adopter until the price drop was announced and we ribbed him unmercifully. Now he will get his vengeance, or partly, with the Jobsian rebate.

I have played with Mark's phone and it is very cool. Unfortunately, it lacks one feature I find vital - voice activation. I'm one of those creeps who is always on the phone in his car (hey, it's a long commute from Hollywood to El Segundo). I'd be dead, figuratively and literally, without the voice activation in my peeling semi-functional Razor, even if it does call the wrong party one out of three times. I've gotten very good at pretending it's not a mistake.

Posted by Roger at 10:04 PM
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September 5, 2007

Ron Paul: The Cyber-Xenophobe

This was an interesting night for politics. Thanks to the brilliant and perspicacious Allahpundit, I got an early look at Fred Thompson's announcement on Leno (the Tonight Show isn't even on yet here in CA as I write). Fred did well I thought - relaxed and affable, but serious enough too. (I was less impressed with his campaign video - but that was also okay) I particularly enjoyed his one-liner about the tedious ten-man debates. Something like: "It's harder to get on the Tonight Show than it is on the debates." No kidding.

We'll all be watching the Thompson road show from here on in. I hope that he doesn't ride the social conservative issues too hard because I suspect that's big loser, especially in the final election. Exploiting those issues to get the nomination is a booby-trap. And, in any case, Thompson is a phony spokesman for extreme social conservatism and anyone with the slightest sense would know that. He is a modern man who has lived a very modern life.

He is the polar antithesis of Ron Paul, who is now starting to scare me. Glenn Reynolds calls him a kook, but that is charitable. He is worse. Paul gives me the willies. Something about watching him talk about "neo conservatives" in tonight's debate with his neck rigid and his hands clutching made me tense with memories I didn't like. The joke is over. There is something spooky about Ron Paul and something even spookier about his acolytes whose devotion pushes them to support him in online polls like cyber-brown shirts. They have made a mockery of the Pajamas Media Straw Poll (you should read our email--the Paulites filled with vitriol and obscenity when their candidate falls below one percent and drops off; reams of others writing us in despair to blackball him forever and return to the poll to normalcy).

The Fox News flash poll has also been destroyed by the Paulites who again pushed their candidate to victory tonight with 35% of the vote;Huckabee had 18 percent. Giuliani trudged along in third at 16. What does this mean? Paul still does not register on national polls. In fact, tonight he was devastated by Mike Huckabee, but that doesn't bother his acolytes whose belief in their leader is religious. I have no such belief in any politician and find that highly dangerous. Twentieth Century Europe was turned into a charnel house from such belief in leaders. Of course, the Paul crowd despises such comparisons but they are not the most sophisticated of people. His supporters live in a kind of libertarian-geek-neverland far from the reality of the lives of the rest of us. Trapped behind their computers, they want to squeeze the world into the models, but it just won't fit. They also have a kind of America first-ism that smacks of xenophobia. This is not a cocktail I care to drink.

Posted by Roger at 11:08 PM
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Sign the Al Dura Petition

I imagine most readers of this site are familiar with the Mohammed Al Dura Case. If you're not, I'm sure the photogrpah of young Mohammed Al Dura being shielded from Israeli bullets during the Intifada is seared indelibly in your brain. The image went round the world, but there is strong reason to believe it is fake.

But why resurrect now this seemingly long-ago pre-9/11 event? Well, as the Father of All Fauxtography, it set a trend in media misrepresentation (and worse) that has not be fully adjusted to this day. Although organs like Reuters and The New York Times have sometimes admitted their mistakes, France 2, the promulgator of this video, has never released its "rushes," which I am told tell a very different story from the one that has been told.

Now, in the era Sarkozy, there is a chance to get the truth. Sign the petition for France 2 to release the tapes.

MORE: For those interested in the case, Pajamas now has a compendium of interesting Al Dura links, including recent trial coverage by Nidra Poller.

Posted by Roger at 4:44 PM
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September 3, 2007

Edwards health care quickie

Sometimes John Edwards almost reaches the level of self-parody when talking about the "two Americas" while building himself a 28000 sq. ft house, etc. Today he got some deserved catcalls from Morrissey and Althouse, especially for his plan to add mandatory mental health testing to his universal health plan. (Mirror, mirror, on the wall....)

But this all got me to thinking a bit about health and health plans, something with which I am sympathetic because, well, I am getting on and, as the Yiddish bubbes famously said "So long as you're healthy, it's the main thing." And who can dispute that?

Or, as another man once said, we are endowed with certain inalienable rights - "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - only the latter two aren't worth much without the former. So, call it what you will, it's kind of disgraceful fifty million Americans don't have health insurance - what with the USA spending more on medical care than any other country, something like sixteen percent of GNP.

But what to do, what to do.... aye, there's the rub. Well, what about Switzerland? Those guys with the cuckoo clock - you know, the ones Orson Welles made fun of in The Third Man. They have a plan that seems to be working pretty well.... or maybe I'm misinformed (and there are only seven million or so of them, so it's nowhere near as tricky). But you can read about it here: Swiss health-care system might serve as model for U. S. And guess what? It's all private, it costs less money and they did it without John Edwards. (All good in my view). I only have one question - are you allowed to eat cheese? Because my cardiologist says absolutely no. [Fire him.-ed. I'm planning on it.]

UPDATE: Regarding the Swiss system, reader Dennis Vogt sent the following email:

Some years ago I was at a dinner party in Zurich with a group of Swiss docs. I am a US lawyer. The key features of their system, which wasn't covered in your post was this. All docs are employees of the healthcare delivery organization and there are no malpractice lawsuits. Poor practitioners are assigned to something safe like doing autopsies or admin work. They all agreed the salaries they got were more than acceptable particularly since all they had to do was practice medicine. They didn't have to be in business or worry at all about back office management issues. To a person, they said they wouldn't trade what they had for more money in America with all the attendant grief. Don't know whether Swiss still do this but would be worth checking out. It is certainly a distinction which makes a hugedifference and explains some of their success.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:15 PM
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Javier Solana goes out on a limb

In reaction to the Palestinian rockets hitting a day care center in Sderot, Israel yesterday, the Eurocrat made the following risky remark, according to the AP.

"I know what it means, and to see today again the same experience for the people, in particular at a time when kids are in school, I think it's something that I have to condemn," he said.

Ya think?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:38 PM
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Send a salami to your boy in the Army

Remember that great WWII slogan from Katz's Deli in New York? Well, it still works and it's still happening (salamis to Iraq). Someone's trying to make a movie about it - you can help.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:16 AM
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September 2, 2007

Pajamas Labor Weekend Scoop from Iran

It's not a great time to get a scoop, but, hey, you get them when you get them. I was sitting here sweltering in the one hundred plus heat in LA, my air conditioner dialed to high but only barely making a dent, when an email came in from Allison in Tel Aviv. Meir Javedanfar had something - a translation from an Iranian press service... the new commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was a former hostage taker from 1979. That got my attention. I quickly checked with Ardeshir here in Tehrangeles for a quick translation of the Iranian website. Yup, it said what it said.... Ali Jafari - the new head of the IRGC - was among the kidnappers at the "House of Spies" (Farsi translation of the American Embassy). So there you go. If not Ahmadinejad, at least Jafari. Farda News Service, which is running this, is apparently Iranian state affiliated. (PJM is developing a small stable of Farsi readers.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:32 PM
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Baldwin on Craig - oh shut up!

Incredible as it may seem, (father of the year!) Alec Baldwin is back opining on Sen. Larry Craig on the HuffPost. Naturally, Baldwin, living proof of the cliché about the intelligence of actors, seizes on this as a gay self-realization issue and completely misses the point.

But if Craig has the chance, especially now that his Republican colleagues have cut his throat, maybe he will experience a change of heart and realize that to be gay, whether he is or not, ought not be a shameful thing, let alone a crime, for anyone. Had he embraced at least that he might still be a Senator today.

Hello, Alec, this isn't about gay rights or one's ability to come out or not. No one gives a damn what Larry Craig does in a Holiday Inn Express. This is about having sex in a public bathroom in an airport where people bring their children. Doesn't matter whether you're doing it with a man, woman or a baboon. But narcissist Alec can't get beyond his puerile argument out of 1972 with its obvious not-very-subconscious intention to highlight the eclipsed movie star as some kind of "true liberal" and not some disgusting hothead who yells insults at his daughter.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:18 AM
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There is no news anymore, only opinion...

... I rather suspect it was always that way... but this WaPo tour d'horizon of the GOP's dim Senate prospects seems all but Democratic cheerleading.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:15 AM
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September 1, 2007

Giuliani vs. Hillary vs. Thompson

The current Rasmussen poll shows Giuliani besting Hillary 47-44. Over the last months, it has had Giuliani in the lead between 2 and 9 points. The same poll shows Hillary leading Thompson (F., of course) 48-44. (Rasmussen doesn't seem to have bothered with a head-to-head with Romney. Hugh Hewitt should be upset with them.)

I think this adds up to very good news for Hillary at the present juncture. Why? Even with the Hsu Controversy, she seems to have the Democratic nomination sown up. The latest Real Clear Politics poll average shows her 16 percentage points ahead, basically where she has been all year. Giuliani isn't doing badly either in the same poll average,coming in at an 11.7% advantage.

But one can't help but think he is ever so slightly more vulnerable with Thompson finally about to come in officially. This will mean more of a fight on the Republican side and more influence for the extremists. Hillary no longer has to cater to Moveon, Kos and the rest, except with gestures. She can go to the center (where the presidency is won). The Republicans still have to cater to their base. Trouble for them. We shall see.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:33 PM
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