Fausta's Blog

Ah, the Journolisters, such charming people…
Smearing as a racist anyone who dare question Wright and his church during the Obama campaign,
Noting that she’d “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his [Rush Limbaugh] eyes bug out” while dying of a heart attack,
Comparing Tea Partiers to brownshirts, even when not bothering to attend any Tea Parties,
And – from a professor at UCLA Law, who doesn’t realize that cable networks are not FCC-regulated broadcasting – speculating as to whether the FCC can pull Fox’s broadcast license. Freedom of the press be damned, of course.

Charming, indeed.

But that’s not the extent of the charm offensive; there’s this from Spencer Ackerman,

“What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.”

Obviously? About the only obvious thing is that Spence has anger issues.

Charm aside, the real issue is that the JournoList aimed for this:

“why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.

“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote.

Winning through intimidation, the Alinksi way.

As John Fund points out,

Apparently, many on JournoList had an agenda that had little to do with covering legitimate news stories, but instead were concerned with protecting their friends and trying to ensure they had “control of the country.”

Don’t worry your little head about it, they’ll continue to do so through other means.

Via Gerard,

UPDATE
The Manchurian Listserv, from Ed Driscoll,

“Rev. Wright is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

Hamas Thanks Int’l Community By Looting NGOs

As thanks to the international community for supporting Hamas in breaking the Israeli military blockade, Hamas has looted and shut down the offices of international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) [added: including some affiliated with the U.N.] which provide services to poor and needy Palestinians

Israel’s ambassador Michael Oren writes about the reality:
An Assault, Cloaked in Peace

The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on Monday was not motivated by peace. On the contrary, the religious extremists embedded among those on board were paid and equipped to attack Israelis — both by their own hands as well as by aiding Hamas — and to destroy any hope of peace.
…
What the videos don’t show, however, are several curious aspects Israeli authorities are now investigating. First, about 100 of those detained from the boats were carrying immense sums in their pockets — nearly a million euros in total. Second, Israel discovered spent bullet cartridges on the Mavi Marmara that are of a caliber not used by the Israeli commandos, some of whom suffered gunshot wounds. Also found on the boat were propaganda clips showing passengers “injured” by Israeli forces; these videos, however, were filmed during daylight, hours before the nighttime operation occurred.

The investigations of all this evidence will be transparent, in accordance with Israel’s security needs.

There is little doubt as to the real purpose of the Mavi Marmara’s voyage — not to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, but to create a provocation that would put international pressure on Israel to drop the Gaza embargo, and thus allow the flow of seaborne military supplies to Hamas. Just as Hamas gunmen hide behind civilians in Gaza, so, too, do their sponsors cower behind shipments of seemingly innocent aid.

This is why the organizers of the flotilla repeatedly rejected Israeli offers to transfer its cargo to Gaza once it was inspected for military contraband. They also rebuffed an Israeli request to earmark some aid packages for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas for four years.

In the recent past, Israeli forces have diverted nine such flotillas, all without incident, and peacefully boarded five of the ships in this week’s convoy. Their cargoes, after proper inspection, were delivered to non-Hamas institutions in Gaza. Only the Marmara, a vessel too large to be neutralized by technical means such as fouling the propeller, violently resisted. It is no coincidence that the ship was dispatched by Insani Yardim Vakfi (also called the I.H.H.), a supposed charity that Israeli and other intelligence services have linked to Islamic extremists.

The real intent of breaking the embargo is to allow rockets to be transported to Gaza from Hamas’s suppliers in Syria and Iran. Israel has already intercepted several such ships laden with munitions. Since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortars at our civilian population. This week, two Hamas rockets exploded near Ashkelon, one of Israel’s largest cities.

Propaganda against Israel (al Dura, green helmet come to mind) is increasingly prevalent.

The “new” tactic – trading lives for publicity against Israel.

Daniel Henninger looks at why the world’s governments beat up on Israel: because they can.
Beating Up on Israel
The world’s powers find it easier to denounce small nations like Israel than take on large and difficult problems like Iran or North Korea.

Set aside the troubling fact that the Jewish state alone gets this routine treatment. Israel should not be immune from criticism. But if the world’s powers unload like this only on relatively small, isolated nations like Israel, then clearly the keepers of the world order find it easier to be blowhards than statesmen. And that means we have a problem.

A problem that is larger than any one of the countries involved: I agree with David Foster, who says,

The worldwide attacks on Israel, in the wake of the Gaza event, are frightening in their venom and irrationality, and I fear that these responses mark a significant turning toward the abandonment of civilization’s ramparts and the appeasement of terrorist and rogue-state barbarism.

For what it’s worth, Blackfive has a modest proposal for resolving this flotilla business (h/t Instapundit). Timely advice, as Israel Girds for Another Ship Heading to Gaza.

Once Denny gets back to blogging, he ought to award the AOTW to Chávez again, to Alain Joyandet, and to Chávez’s buddy Daniel Ortega:

Hugo Chávez says U.S. is using earthquake as pretext for occupying Haiti

Speaking on his weekly television show, Chavez opined that the U.S. mission in Haiti was a ruse to initiate military occupation.

“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war,” Chavez said. “They are occupying Haiti undercover.”

Alleged pedophile and Hugo’s buddy Daniel Ortega last Sunday also warned of US deployment in Haiti

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega says that the United States has taken advantage of the massive quake in Haiti and deployed troops in the country.

“What is happening in Haiti seriously concerns me as US troops have already taken control of the airport,” Ortega said on Saturday.
…
The leftist Nicaraguan president denounced Washington’s move in deploying military forces in Haiti, saying “It seems that the bases (on Latin America) are not sufficient.”

“There is no logic that US troops landed in Haiti. Haiti seeks humanitarian aid, not troops. It would be madness we all began to send troops to Haiti,” said Ortega.

Ortega of course doesn’t give a damn about the security of medical and relief personnel arriving in the island, much less the safety of the Haitians themselves.

Alain Joyandet, the French minister in charge of humanitarian relief, called on the UN to “clarify” the American role amid claims the military build up was hampering aid efforts, because the US is in charge of air traffic control.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti is turning out to be a classic illustration of anti-Americanism in seven easy steps (h/t via Instapundit), predictable as it can be: for some, the US can do no right.

You know the Chávez-Ortega-Joyandet accusations are insane when France’s former prime minister Lionel Jospin came to the US’s defense following the Chavez, Joyandet, and Ortega statements, explaining why the US is helping Haiti.

For that, Chávez, Joyandet & Ortega earned the AOTW so far, but the week is young, so all of them still have plenty of opportunity to further disgrace themselves.

Build A Bear, foster a lie, support a scam,
Build-A-Climate-Scare: Why You Should Boycott Build-A-Bear

the Build-A-Bear empire sweeps across nearly every state and into 17 other countries. You’ll find their outlets in shopping malls everywhere and even some ballparks. The company also has a website called Build-A-Bearville.com where children can play an interactive video game that, on it’s surface, is unlikely to raise suspicion or sound alarms.

But when your unsuspecting tot logs on and hops a virtual train to the North Pole…you should know that he or she will be informed — by Santa Claus — that Christmas may be canceled this year due to Global Warming. Below is part two of the 3-part video

Here’s the video,

Of course, most five year olds might be sharp enough to realize that we’re freezing our butts off even after shoveling 18″ of snow that fell during the weekend… Still, Santa should leave the Build A Bear folks a lump of coal.

————————————————
The Senate Democrats are gifting the American people a lump of coal. I received this from the Washington Post,

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Tuesday that a vote on final passage of a health-care reform bill will take place at 8 a.m. Dec. 24. It will be followed by a vote on increasing the federal debt ceiling, the leaders said.

Scrooge couldn’t be happier.

… and available on line, too.

White NYT Readers, You May Skip To The Next Page!

This gift guide takes a holiday season celebrated by both Caucasians and people of color, and sets apart a page for gifts meant “by and for” a group of people defined only by the color of their skin.

Or, as Mary Katharine said,

in case you’d like to offend one of your friends or relatives by proclaiming via painfully stereotypical gift idea that the only thing you know about them is their skin color, and you assume that it defines them at the exclusion of all else.

For instance, the “Wise Latina” t-shirt:

Time to pour some snark on this crap:
Happy (Segreagated) Holidays
NYT offers thoughtful gift guide for the minority in your life
Things White People Like To Buy (For People Of Color)
Where Da White Gifts At?!?, via Ed Driscoll.
New York Times Teaches You How to Buy Separate (but equal) Gifts!
NYT Dreaming of a Colored Christmas

Gateway Pundit posts, OUTRAGE!… CBS: “Meet Iran’s George W. Bush” (Ahmadinejad!)

The CBS’s article Meet Iran’s George W. Bush
New Republic: Can Anyone Beat Ahmadinejad In This Week’s Election?, was a retread from an article in TNR:

Lest we forget, Jim reminds us of two facts:
One:

CBS forgot the part about Bush liberating over 50,000,000 Muslims from two of the most violent regimes in history and bringing democracy to the Middle East.

And two:

For the record- The New York Times detailed the recount investigation paid for by a consortium of newspapers and admitted that BUSH WON in 2004.

Look it up yourself: the NYT actually said,

A comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots from last year’s presidential election reveals that George W. Bush would have won even if the United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward.

But the Iranian election means is it’s time to slander, so Andrew Sullivan was over at The Atlantic saying that Ahmadinejad is Karl Rove. The link takes you to Stacy’s post; if you want to check out Sillivan’s post you go there. Sullivan never misses a chance to indulge his Sarah Palin fixation, while at it,

Ahmadinejad’s bag of tricks is eerily like that of Karl Rove – the constant use of fear, the exploitation of religion, the demonization of liberals, the deployment of Potemkin symbolism like Sarah Palin.

What is even more bizarre is Sullivan’s recurrent and perverse focus on Palin’s children, in which he constantly indulges in his posts, about which Althouse comments,

And why should the governor of a state be called an “attention-starved celebreality star”? Is it because you don’t respect her as a politician? You might call everyone with the nerve to run for President/Vice President an attention-starved celebreality star, but the fact is you don’t. Apparently, it’s because she’s got kids who do things that you think we can sit back and view as objects of idle amusement. If anyone is to be a politician — in your nasty little world — their kids better toe the line and stay perfectly prim and healthy and smart (or hide).

But back to Sullivan’s first post: Iran is a Red State:

Think of this regime as Cheney and Rove in a police state setting, and you see what’s been going on. (Of course, Rove and Cheney live within a democratic system utterly unlike Iran, and there’s no evidence they would violate democratic norms as Khamenei just did. But their demagoguery, abuse of the state, dedication to conflict abroad, co-optation of the armed forces, and manipulation of rural and religious voters all have parallels in Red State Iran.)

So what Sullivan’s saying, in his heightened consciousness and loftier intellect which given the chance he probably will humbly acknowledge, is that he would have you believe that voters in red state America don’t vote out of their own free will since Karl and Dick manipulate them any which way, through the deployment of Czarist shams like Sarah Palin and her children. From there to taking the leap and equating George Bush = Ahmadinejad is simply putting the icing on the metaphorical cake, or am I missing something here?

What these statements and false analogies in CBS, TNR, Sullivan and others have in common is Alinsky’s rules:

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

“One of the criteria for picking the target is the target’s vulnerability … the other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a personification, not something general and abstract.”

Targeting, personalization, polarization, and personification: The plight of the Iranians is just another opportunity.

I kid you not: opening this weekend in Buenos Aires,

Che, the musical

“The play seeks to rescue Che’s image from the banal,” says the director.

Because it’s never enough to idolize a mass murderer son of a bitch. You must also set him to song and dance.

I got this in today’s email:

A change is coming. O-BALM-A™ Executive Lip Balm in both Cocoa Butter or Shea Butter Formulas will relieve chapped or dry lips, angular cheilitis or stomatitis, and cold sores. Get those gorgeous lips ready for some very important obstacles that need your direct attention.

YES WE CAN Moisturize Those Lips!

O-BALM-A™ Executive Lip Balm will provide an occlusive layer on the lip surface to seal moisture in lips and protect them from external exposure. Dry air, cold temperatures and wind all have a drying effect on skin by drawing moisture away from the body. Lips are particularly vulnerable because the skin is so thin, and thus they are often the first to present signs of dryness. Our unique Cocoa & Shea Butter formulas will prevent moisture loss and maintain lip comfort.

Hope! Change! Lip balm!

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Jeanne Cummings of Politico says Obama’s losing the stimulus message war

At this crucial juncture in the push to pass an economic recovery package, President Obama finds himself in the most unlikely of places: He is losing the message war.

And what message is that?

to “get this thing back on track.”

Let’s look at “this thing” of the so-called stimulus, with the help of my friend Rick Moran:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.

• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs.

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.

• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

• $850 million for Amtrak.

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

But according to the Obama team, it’s all a matter of the Jetsons versus the Flinstones because anyone opposing their far-ahead ideas must be doing it because they’re stuck in the stone age and listens to Rush Limbaugh instead of paying attention to (in Cummings’s words) Obama’s gifted oratory.

I guess that must include the Europeans, too.

UPDATE
A J Strata has the graph:

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Guilt is a powerful emotion and propagandists never hesitate to use it, even when they risk being silly.

Earlier this week we had the PETA people claiming that fish are not fish but kittens of the sea.

Today some physicist with time on his hands and a need to publish claims that performing two Google searches uses up as much energy as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea:

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

The hyphenated Alex also claims,

viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website with complex images, animations or videos.

Blame it on Al Gore.

I won’t dare calculate how much methane the hyphenated physicist emitted while doing his study but considering that my yard has over a dozen trees, I’m willing to bet my carbon offset is bigger than his.

Now excuse me while I Google, watch a few YouTubes, have some kippers for breakfast and start the tea kettle.

UPDATE
I {heart} Chris Muir.

Update 2
What do sea kittens eat?

Off-topic: Shiny happy dhimmi – #8 for Carnival goodness.

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