Quote of the Day
From the unbeatable As'ad Abukhalil, the Angry Arab:
I am watching the Bush Doctrine running for its life on the streets of Beirut.WITH POTATOS
AND HUMMUS
WE SALUTE YOU
O' AS'AD!
Pray
In honor of Pope Ratzinger's visit to the United States this week.
The Palestinian Shoah
Israel's deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, let the cat out of the bag and exposed the Israeli Final Solution to the Gaza problem for all the world to see:
"The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told army radio.
Shoah is the Hebrew word normally reserved to refer to the Jewish Holocaust. It is rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi extermination of Jews during the second world war, and many Israelis are loath to countenance its use to describe other events.
My, my, my.
The comparison of zionists to Nazis is complete, and no false cries of "anti-Semitism" can be claimed (unless you want to consider Vilnai an anti-Semite, which I certainly do, where Semite = Arab = Palestinian).
Henceforth, zionist = Nazi, and Nazi = zionist. They are one in the same, cut from the same cloth. No amount of backtracking will suffice. The illusion has been shattered. The zionists have forever branded themselves as Nazis. Like a victim of child abuse who matures into a pedophile, they have assumed the role of their victimizers and have become them.
Heil Olmert! Heil Sharon! Heil Ben Gurion!
HEIL! HEIL! HEIL!!!
The Analogy: Guerilla Street Theater
I'm often asked how to best explain the occupation of Palestine to someone completely unfamiliar with the realities of that ongoing slow-motion genocide. Here's how.
First, you'll need a big friend who can take on anybody. For this exercise, his name will be, "America".
Next, find someone on the street who has something you want, like say the spot of pavement where they are standing. Walk up to one of them and stand right up against them and physically touch their body with yours. When they protest, grab them in a headlock. If they start to hit you, start wailing on their head. If they get too aggressive, call America over and have him restrain your victim and tell them everything will be fine if you'll just stop resisting. Tell them you'll let them go if they promise to be your bitch for life. If they refuse, keep them in the headlock.
Be sure to keep America around. If America gets bored and wants to leave, you're in trouble.
A Big Throbbing Caucus In Iowa
Here's the problem with these silly caucuses that everyone is focusing on while the world burns. The first ones (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina) are held in small, insignificant states whose voters tend to swing to the extremes of the political spectrum. Coupled with low turnouts (something like 12% of Iowans participated) the results don't necessarily reflect the viability of any particular candidate, especially when the so-called "debates" we've had over the past several years (it seems like it's been that long anyway) generally focus on the "mainstream" candidates and marginalize lesser known candidates that may have good ideas. So by the time we get to Iowa, you have the spectacle of Christian Evangelicals (America's version of the Taliban) piling on to hand a "victory" to Huckabee, who, if elected, will make George Bush's Jesus-drenched presidency seem secular. And on the other side, an inexperienced shmo like Barak Obama gets the pole position. And while it's great to see the dreams and aspirations of superficial jack-asses like Romney, Giuliani and Hillary(TM) get crushed, the results are overall pretty meaningless. Meanwhile, any potential for a third party to make any headway is precluded by the fact that the media seems to think we are exclusively a two-party system.
So now we move on to New Hampshire, which in 2000 picked John McCain as the Republican front-runner, the "maverick" who eventually healed to his masters and came to give a speech at Liberty University, the breeding hive of Christian Evangelicals, all in the name of kissing major ass for votes. Liberty University, you may recall, was founded by Jerry Falwell, the same guy that McCain labeled an "agent of intolerance" during his 2000 campaign. If you're going to go that low, you may as well promise to suck some caucus for votes. At least that would be more dignified. Anyway, it should also be noted that NH chose Kerry in 2004. So much for that "libertarian" reputation, though given the choices the Democrats presented that year you can't really blame them (picking "None of the Above" would've been more appropriate).
After New Hampshire, we return to the muck and mire of a majority Evangelical Christian state, South Carolina, where voters are easily swayed by robo-dialers telling harrowing tales of prostitutes and illegitimate black babies. Look for a repeat of this tactic by Huckabee because, yes, he does take South Carolinians for fools, and I'm convinced once the big black caucas spews its load all over SC, his strategy will come to be vindicated. And can you blame him? If all you have to do is pander to the racist, white-power constituency with a cheap whisper campaign then why not? There's still almost a year of campaigning ahead of you, and people will have forgotten about your dirty tricks by the time Super Tuesday rolls around.
And so it is that by the time the first three primaries are done, we are generally left with Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber as our presidential candidates as the minority of voters who inhabitat the fringes of the political spectrum in these otherwise marginal states tell us who they would prefer to drive our country further into the abyss, and the press proceeds to put their stamp of approval on the front runners coming out of the primaries and almost exclusively focus on them. And we wonder why we keep ending up with candidates that present us with a moral dilemma when we go to the polls.
On the bright side, Ron Paul placed 5th, and going into Hew Hampshire, given the proclivity of that state's citizens to identify as libertarians (if not in label then in ideal) he should do well there, probably better than in Iowa. I'll go out on a limb and predict at least a third place finish there.
Israeli Wisdom: An Example
Olmert says "war" on militants in Gaza to continue (Reuters)Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out dialogue with Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip and vowed to press on with the army's "war" against militants firing cross-border rockets into Israel.
Olmert's closest confidant said Israel's strategic goal was to topple the Hamas government in the coastal territory through continued military and economic pressure.
Yeah, great strategy, MacArthur! Let's create a Mogadishu right next door to us. Because that's exactly what Israel needs: an ungoverned, arms-saturated failed state right on its border.
Is anyone paying attention to this? How many more stupid things must Israeli leaders do or say before we cut off aid completely?
On a side note, I get so sick of reading this crap all the time. From the same article:
Olmert appeared to play down prospects of a ceasefire deal with Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June after routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas did not "seize control" from Abbas. Hamas pre-emptively struck at the Fatah forces that were being armed and trained by Israeli and American puppetmasters to stage a coup and seize control from Hamas, which was, and still is, the democratically elected leadership of the Palestinians. I am so god damn tired of shoddy reporting like this, and its not just Reuters: you read it in the AP, in the New York Times (possibly the worst offender), Yahoo! News, and in just about every major news organization that covers world events. I can only assume the so-called "reporters" who write these articles are either cynically lazy at best or paid propagandists at worst as it sometimes seems they just look up the current talking points issued by the Bush administration and incorporate them into their articles by rote. No wonder the public is losing confidence in the press, and even the press itself is none to proud of their own work.
Of course, the real reason for Israel's problems, the OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE, is neglected until the end of the article:
"If the occupation commits itself to stopping all forms of aggression against our people, only then the factions may discuss this issue. But until then, there is no discussion among the factions over a calm," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Ron Paul, Bitches.
I'll put it simply: if Ron Paul is elected president of the US, things will be difficult, but I have faith that they will eventually get better over time.
If, of the current candidates (with the exception of Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel), someone other than Ron Paul is elected, things will get worse than they are, to varying degrees of "bad" and to a swifter or slower extent depending on the candidate. I'll add that if any of the current Republican candidates other than Ron Paul somehow gets elected, things will get very bad, very fast.
This is Tottenism
I have been doing a little social study with the recent influx of Tottenites that have infested the blog. Rotten Totten has made the claim--without providing any supporting evidence--that I was "terrorizing" his blog, and his army of armchair idiots simply accepted it at face value and swarmed over here like locusts. No proof, no details, just accusations. It reminds me of and is pertinent to the Iranian nuke issue: the US has put forth plentiful propositions of perfidy on the part of the Persians, but has proffered no proof of their presumptuously pernicious project. Yet as my blog entry of October 30 reminds us, 52% of Americans sampled in that particular poll believe the claims of the Bush regime that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, the same administration that promised us nine ways til Sunday that Saddam Hussein had re-constituted his WMD program and was months, nay WEEKS!, away from developing a nuclear weapon. The Tottenistas are representative of the 52% of sheep that bring shame on themselves for being fooled yet a second (third? fourth? fifth?) time.
It goes deeper than that. Demonization as a propaganda tool is effective only when you have an audience that is willing to abandon any rationality they may have had and simply default to the basest, most thuggish instincts of human emotion: sheer, raw hatred. And not rational hatred, but hatred based on fear and ignorance; a cowardly hatred. The comments that have been posted like so many chicken droppings are instructive to this end. A sampling:
It is your ilk that is behind the sweeping totalitarianism you have deluded yourself into believing is a reliegion. May Allah and the rest of you sand monkeys take a long needed dirt nap!
you are a toothless pork eating terrorist in a g-string and hooker boots.
YOU FUCKING COWARDS! YOU GODDAMNED SAND FUCKING NIGGERS! FUCK YOU RIGHT UP THE ASS WITH ALLAHS PRICK. YOU ARE THE BIGGEST FUCKING ASSHOLES THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN. AMERICA SHITS UP YOU MAMA'S NASTY CUNT HOLE. FUCK OFF AND DIE DICKHEADS!
FUCK YOU AND MOHAMED!!! I think was he gay anyway. Sheep loving bitch.
hehe, another GOATFUCKER opened a blog...
THere are no such people as the Paleo-stinkian
It is about nothing more than simple racism and bigotry, and Totten predictably attracts the worst of the bunch, which is to say the same cretins that inhabit the dens of intolerance of the likes of Little Green Footballs, as but one example. These people, their psyches irreversibly damaged by the 9/11 attacks, exploited that tragedy as an opportunity to express their true colors, which is an unadulterated and deep-seated intolerance for those that they don't understand and therefore ignorantly fear. We see them here in their full, cacophonous glory, braying like a pack of frightened jack-asses. These people are the true enemies of America. They are a cancer on our society. Oblivious to the ills that our disastrous foreign policy has sown for several decades through our support of brutally unjust and viciously dictatorial regimes, their reaction to the destruction we reaped in return could only be explained to them and subsequently understood in egregiously disinformative summations: they hate us because of our freedom.
Naturally, these people adopt as their champions those of a similar disposition and mentality (and of equally low intellect, since they fear even the slightest indication of erudition). Totten reminds me of the character of Dirk Diggler in the movie Boogie Nights: a legend in his own mind and surrounded by a cast of equally mediocre but fawning cohorts who constantly affirm their belief in his "talent", which consists of nothing more than shooting his wad, while in reality he's nothing but a doped-up loser from the suburbs.
I took some time to locate pertinent examples of Totten's total ignorance of Arabs and Islam, his topic of main focus, but fortunately didn't have to spend very much time since he produces gems of idiocy on a regular basis. The most recent is this:
Lots of Arabs drink coffee, but he's right that Iraqis do not. They have a tea culture here.
Right. Iraqis, the vast majority of them Arabs, do not drink coffee. You know, that drink whose name is derived from the Arabic word qahwa. Oh, Totten. I know you're on a "freelance observer's"* budget, but Wikipedia is free to use.
And here's a nugget:
Pelosi is a fool. She knows not what she does, as evidenced by the fact that she wore a headscarf to meet with the Alawite-Baathist regime. Alawites are not Muslims, and the Assad regime fears and loathes conservative Islam.
It's good to know that I, an Alawite, am not a Muslim. Perhaps I might finally gain acceptance from some of Totten's more bigoted fan base.
What a cretin. This is a gaffe that rivals that of Imam Charles Johnson. Next time, save yourself the embarrassment and just fucking Google it. Something as simple as a Wikipedia search would've given you a clue, if you'd had any sense at all. But of course, Totten seems to fancy himself an Orientalist, and like most who qualify themselves with that colonialist era title, his is a shallow understanding of Arab and Muslim culture and history, usually that which is picked up anecdotally from other Orientalists.
I can't be bothered to find more examples at the moment, but really, is it even necessary? With the above two glaring examples, I submit it is not.
Finally, "popinjay". Nope, sorry, I don't watch Bill O'Reilly (and I don't understand why anyone would think I would). I copped it from George Galloway, from whom O'Reilly likely cribbed it. It's appropriate, since Galloway invoked it in a debate with Christopher Hitchens, whom Totten apparently idolizes.
Anyway, you monkeys can leave now. There's nothing here of interest to you, and I'll only make you angrier every time I post something. Save your slander and bile for someone who gives a shit.
* That's how one of your fanboys described you
UPDATE:
A kind reader provided more examples of Tottenism:
Welcome(?)
Well, suddenly we have an influx of frothing jihadists who have apparently been steered our way courtesy of Michael Totten, pseudo-journalist and unprincipled jack-ass. I guess someone has been having fun with Totten's idiotic blog, which is so poorly designed that anyone can impersonate anyone they want, including Totten. So when someone takes advantage of Totten's lack of IT savvy, I somehow get the blame.
Excellent!
Totten just handed me an early Christmas gift, and I plan to take full advantage of it.
I spent some time on Totten's silly blog about a year ago when the Angry Arab linked to an article Totten had written about Lebanon. Totten thinks that because he spent 11 months in Lebanon that he somehow has become an honorary citizen and is now an expert on their culture, history and politics, notwithstanding the fact that he doesn't even have a tourist's understanding of Arabic. When I arrived at his blog I couldn't believe the nonsense he was proffering. Worse was the fact that his slavish readership, judging by the comments, thought they were reading the Gospel of Lebanon as handed down by the Prophet Totten. Nothing he said made any sense, and everything he wrote was biased by his utter contempt and hatred for Hizballah (which he can't even spell right, by the way). I tried to have a reasonable debate with him, but once you start pointing out how shallow and skewed his so-called "reporting" is and criticize his amateur conclusions, he gets upset and "bans" you, which means anytime you write something to his blog he manually deletes it. The fun starts when you reject his "ban" and keep him busy deleting your articles. It only serves to demonstrate what a craven hypocrite he is. Eventually I got bored with that and moved on. But apparently I delivered a sting that Totten couldn't shake, and now I'm implicated anytime someone visits his blog and points out how ridiculously peurile it is.
Has anyone even noticed that Totten is the only "liberal" that is part of the Pajamas Media network? For those of you who don't know, Pajamas Media was this failed attempt by rabid hate-monger and noted anti-Arab/Muslim bigot Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and fellow rapscallion Roger Simon to capitalize on the right-wing blogosphere by offering advertisers a one-stop shop for getting their content blasted from all the anti-American neoconservative blogs that use impressive terms like "Islamofacist". Needless to say they floundered mightily. Anyway, Pajamas Media represents the worst of the people who hate freedom and equate dissent with treason; the kind of people who think Guantanamo Bay and waterboarding are too lenient; who want to install Bush as President for Life. Yet Roger Simon is proudly quoted on Totten's blog thusly: "A hard-headed liberal who thinks and writes superbly".
Rubbish.
Totten is like Thomas Friedman Lite. His analysis (if you can call it that) is even more inane and his assumptions are exceedingly asinine, but at least Friedman can write. Totten's articles are the intellectual equivalent of an 11th grade homework assignment: tedious and mediocre. Totten is nothing but a neoconservative in liberal panties. He takes advantage of the misery of the millions of Iraqis and Lebanese whose lives have been turned upside down and inside out by using their dismembered body parts as stepping stones to a paycheck. He breathlessly boasts about his travels to the Middle East where he plays out his juvenile Rambo fantasies, hyping up US "progress" in Iraq more fervently than any of the hyenas at the National Review. And his readers, apparently fans of poorly written fairy tales, lap it up like puppies at a milk bowl.
Fie, Michael Totten, you rotten scumbag. You're a callous, self-aggrandizing popinjay. How dare you trivialize the suffering of millions with your tawdry fiction. How dare you cynically capitalize on the death and destruction of occupation and imperialism. Every word you spew is refuse, a profane mockery of the millions of lives that have been prematurely snuffed out in these odious wars of greed and selfishness that you exalt and glorify so you can continue to profit from them.
I'm done, for now. Let's see what the Tottenites have to say.
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