Fausta's blog

Faustam fortuna adiuvat
The official blog of Fausta's Blog Talk Radio show.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Bias at the Beeb?

Blame Israel, read later,
Fuel crisis threatens UN Gaza aid. The Beeb declares,
Israeli sanctions imposed in an attempt to force the Palestinian group Hamas to stop rocket fire have caused shortages
Having made that assertion, the Beeb then mentions the Hamas-generated strike by the Gaza oil distributors as "Israel says":
But Israel says Hamas is deliberately preventing fuel from being distributed.

It says there are a million litres of fuel at a border terminal which Gaza fuel distributors, with the backing of Hamas, have refused to collect in protest at the Israeli restrictions.
It's not until paragraph #15 that you read
The fuel shortages have been compounded since 7 April by a strike by Gaza's fuel distributors and petrol station owners, who have been refusing to pick up about 1 million litres that Israel has pumped into the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, saying the quantity is insufficient.
Not that that had anything to do with shortages...

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Carter's travels

Hamas leaders travel to Egypt to meet with Carter
Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Saeed Seyam entered Egypt via the Rafah border crossing along with four other Hamas officials and headed by road to Cairo, witnesses said. They were escorted at the border by Egyptian security men.
...
Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, has rejected Western demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing Israeli-Palestinian interim peace deals
This essentially answers Roger Kimball's question, Should Jimmy Carter be trusted with a passport?

Via Beth

Congressman Joe Knollenberg has introduced a bill to prohibit federal funding of the Carter Center (h/t Judith):
The bill, the Coordinated American Response to Extreme Radicals Act (CARTER Act), would prohibit any taxpayer dollars from being directed to the Carter Center. The Center has received at least $19 million in federal taxpayer funds since 2001.
Clifford May, who I met at last week's conference, asks,
The Hamas Charter asserts that "initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to [Hamas’] principles....There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad." And by Jihad, Hamas does not mean an internal struggle for personal improvement.

Not only do Hamas members oppose a "two-state solution," they believe that nation-states are un-Islamic. Instead, an Islamic caliphate is to be re-established, an empire that is to expand until the Dar al-Islam, the world ruled by righteous Muslims, consumes the Dar al-Harb, the world in which infidels and apostates currently hold sway. "Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad," Hamas member and Palestinian parliamentarian Yunis al-Asal pledged this month on a Hamas television program.
May is not inventing this; you can read the Hamas charter right here.

May continues,
Does Carter sincerely think he can convince Meshaal to reject such ideas and embrace the Carter Center's kumbaya mission of "waging peace and building hope"? Does he really believe he can change Mashaal's mind, much less open his heart?
I don't believe he does.

Underreported, but true: Hamas Endorses Obama
On Sunday, Aaron Klein and John Batchelor interviewed Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas, on WABC radio. The interview produced a scoop which, for some reason, has not been widely publicized: Hamas has endorsed Barack Obama for President. Yousef said, "We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election."

Expect a rerun of the disastrous Carter presidency if Obama gets the job.

UPDATE
Jimmy Carter: a fool on a fool's errand, at the Lebanon Daily Star, via Siggy.
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Should Carter be censured?

UPDATED

Gateway Pundit has the video of Carter explaining why he wants to meet with Hamas:

In the video, Carter explains (emphasis added),
"It's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel, and to cooperate with Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians"
Let's remind Carter that Fatah is yet another terrorist sponsor through its al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

As Gateway Pundit points out, this mission to Hamas is such a hairbrained scheme that even Jimmy's fellow elders are staying away.

My friend Gay Patriot is initiating a request for a Resolution of Censure against former President Jimmy Carter. (Also at Instapundit). It's about time someone did.

Prior posts on Carter here.

UPDATE
The Dimwitted Dodo Awards
Can anybody spell "Logan Act"?

Oh, well, just when you think Jimmy can't stoop any lower, it isn't for his lack of trying: Carter wanted to meet Islamic Jihad, too.

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Jimmy Carter, tyrant-loving fool

A couple of years ago Gateway Pundit posted Jimmy Carter Parades the World's 10 Worst Dictators, a who's who in Jimmy's work: Robert Mugabe, Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il of North Korea and Omar al-Bashar of Sudan all hold places of honor at Jimmy's table.

Let's also not forget Jimmy's fondness for Yasser


and Hugo


Therefore it was only a matter of time before this was announced: Report: Jimmy Carter to Meet With Hamas Leader in Syria
Former President Jimmy Carter is reportedly preparing an unprecedented meeting with the leader of Hamas, an organization that the U.S. government considers one of the leading terrorist threats in the world.

The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Carter was planning a trip to Syria for mid-April, during which he would meet with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on April 18.
...
Meshal, who lives in Syria to avoid being arrested by the Israeli government, leads Hamas from his seat in Damascus, where he is a guest of Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Well, while Jimmy's in the vicinity, he might as well drop by Bashar's, who Nancy remembers so fondly:


Because, after all, few things spread the virtues of democracy like kissing up to murderous thugs.

UPDATE
A golden moment via Macsmind,


Via Judith,


UPDATE, Thursday 10 April
Who pays for Carter?
Jimmy Carter and Unconscious Hate

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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Eight killed in terrorist attack at Jerusalem yeshiva

Eight killed in terrorist attack at Jerusalem yeshiva: Nine students hurt, three in serious condition
Eight people were killed and nine others were wounded Thursday evening when terrorists infiltrated the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood in Jerusalem, police said.

A single terrorist infiltrated the yeshiva, possibly armed with an explosive belt, and began firing in every direction. He was shot and killed, police said.
Israeli Cool is updating frequently as news come in. Allison Kaplan Sommer writes,
The terrorist couldn't have chosen a better target in terms of symbolic value if his purpose was to hit at the heart of Judaism. The Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, where eight young men were shot to death on Thursday night is one of the most prestigious centers of religious Jewish learning in the most Jewish city in the Jewish state.
While people in Gaza celebrate and Hamas officials in Gaza welcomed the attack, it won't be long before someone brings up the fallacy of "disproportionate response".

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

More on the Imad Mughniyah demise

Following up on the Imad Mughniyah news, TIME is posting a story with a Hezbollah Media Office/AP byline. At least we know who sent it. The son of a bitch is referred to as a "militant", of course, a "freedom fighter" whose "misdeeds" granted him such a "mythical status that sometimes it was not always certain if he really existed at all".

He existed, alright, and he killed hundreds of people.

During the Mughniyeh funeral Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah says he's ready for "open war with Israel":
He insisted: "The blood of Imad Mughniyeh will make them [Israel] withdraw from existence."
Not that Nasrallah was all that conciliatory towards Israel to begin with.

Nasrallah's accusations are just one of the many conspiracy theories going around the Mughniyeh explosion: Siggy's posting about All Kinds Of Certainty,
It was inevitable and certain the assassination of Imad Mugniyah would spawn some terric conspiracy theories. In the latest iteration of the Arab world addition/obsessions, Hamas is now being accused with the assassination of Imad Mugniyah. Why? Because Hamas wants a relationship with United States and the assassination of a terror bigwig(pig) like Mugniyah is just the kind of gift Hamas believes would do the trick.
Then there's the childhood trauma theory (which, as to be expected, is blamed on the Jews) and some more speculation on Syria, too.

But one thing is clear, whoever did it, did mankind a favor. Even the French agree.

UPDATE
Hezbollah Mourners Shout "Death to America! Death to Israel!" at Mughniyeh's Funeral

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Meanwhile, on Hamas TV...

Assud the Jew-eating rabbit:


Bring on the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

More at Snapped Shot

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Hamas brings down the wall

At the London Times, Exclusive: Hamas 'spent months cutting through Gaza wall in secret operation'
a Hamas border guard interviewed by The Times at the border today admitted that the Islamist group was responsible and had been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches.

That meant that when the explosive charges were set off in 17 different locations after midnight last night the 40ft wall came tumbling down, leaving it lying like a broken concertina down the middle of no-man's land as an estimated 350,000 Gazans flooded into Egypt.
...
Asked whether he had reported it to the government, he replied: "It was the government that was doing this. Who would I report it to?"
The people who got through went shopping,
Thousands of people were herding back cows, sheep and even camels from Egypt into the Gaza strip. Others brought back motorbikes while many women lugged back cans of olive oil and men could be seen weighed down with jerry-cans full of fuel.
...
Some staggered back into Gaza carrying televisions, and others sported brand-new mobile phones. In Gaza City, prices of cigarettes - which had skyrocketed during the total blockade of the past week - fell by 70 per cent in a few hours.

Flopping Aces has the history of the wall.

The BBC plays the world's smallest violin: Egypt 'won't force Gazans back'
Egypt has said it will not use force to send back Palestinians who crossed from the Gaza Strip in large numbers after parts of the border were breached.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said the border would be closed again when all the Palestinians had returned.

Tens of thousands have surged in to buy food and other supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.
An Israeli blockade - but the wall is/was at the Gaza-Egypt border. Would the Beeb think of asking the Arab countries in the region why do they prevent their fellow Arabs from moving freely across borders?

Israeli Cool:
It looks like yesterday’s clashes between Gazan women and Egyptian border guards were staged specifically for the purpose of doing this pre-planned operation in such a way that Egypt would be unwilling to interfere.

And it seems probable that everything we've seen over the past few days - Hamas closing bakeries, shutting the fuel plant, perhaps even the rocket barrages themselves last week - were all meant to play to world opinion, create a fake "crisis", all ultimately to force Egypt to open Rafah, something that Hamas has been trying to do for months.
Would it ever occur to the Beeb and others - never mind to the Gazans, too - that perhaps living in peace with their neighbors, Israel and Egypt, could be a solution to their shortages and needs?

Indeed, ShrinkWrapped sees possibilities,
The possibilities are intriguing. Gaza can now integrate its economy with Egypt and start to build structures. If Tom Barnett, et al, are correct this will inevitably moderate their behavior. If, as is more likely (consider the Scorpion and the Frog), Hamas provokes a larger war with Israel, Gaza citizens will have an exit and can become real refugees, not the faux refugees they have been since 1948. In such a circumstance, the strictures that have been imposed on Israel by the human shields that Hamas has wielded so effectively, will loosen with results that have the potential to surprise many and change the dynamics of the confrontation in unforeseeable ways.

This could well be the start of very significant shifts in the Israeli-Palestinian dynamics; time will tell.
Let's hope.
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Thursday, January 10, 2008

The wrong approach: Palestinian statehood and compensation

Bush: Palestinian statehood and compensation are solution to refugee issue
"I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms, including compensation, to resolve the refugee issue," said Bush, in a statement summing up two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Bush arrived in Israel for a three-day on Wednesday.

"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," continued Bush. "The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people."
In today's news, this is how the news was received:
Ramallah demo brands Bush 'war criminal'

Thousands protest in Gaza against "vampire" Bush

and via Gateway Pundit, the American International School in the Gaza Strip got bombed.

Have Fatah, Hamas or Hizbollah changed their stripes?

Then making a Palestinian state and paying compensation will accomplish nothing.
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Saturday, November 10, 2007

The lost "24" pilot, and a promise from Hamas

Via Irwin,
24: The unaired 1994 pilot
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Via The Corner, Joe vor VP, which quotes Sen. Joe Lieberman's speech:
. [T]here is something profoundly wrong--something that should trouble all of us--when we have elected Democratic officials who seem more worried about how the Bush administration might respond to Iran's murder of our troops, than about the fact that Iran is murdering our troops.

There is likewise something profoundly wrong when we see candidates who are willing to pander to this politically paranoid, hyper-partisan sentiment in the Democratic base--even if it sends a message of weakness and division to the Iranian regime.
Dan's not thrilled about Joe in a Republican ticket, but Joe Lieberman in his speech pointed out all the reasons why I won't be voting Democrat any time soon.
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From the "No sh*t, Sherlock" files:
Hamas says it will seize West Bank if Israel withdraws
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No Pasaran posts on Reporters Without Scruples and the skewing of the "Press Freedom Index". Follow the money:
More puzzling still, in the English version of the RSF 2006 accounts, the subsidies line in the French accounts quite simply . . . disappears.
Read the post and follow their links to the Iranian connection.
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Cassandra explains What is love

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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Well, that didn't take long

U.S. Prosecution of Muslim Group Ends in Mistrial.

The Beeb didn't take long in declaring them innocent: Their report started with "A mistrial has been declared in the case against an innocent Muslim charity..."

I'll add a link to the video report if the Beeb posts it.

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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Tuesday round-up

ISNA wants you to abandon stereotypes, while they fund Hamas.

Gerard Van der Leun has an excellent round-up, The New Essayists: A Selection

Maria sent me Dr Sowell's most recent Random Thoughts

And last, but not least, The Tide Is Turning in Iraq
Significant challenges remain in establishing security, building up Iraqi forces capable of maintaining it and helping the Iraqi government achieve reconciliation and unity. But few expected the progress made so far. The tide in Iraq is clearly turning, as the Iraqi people are voting with their lives to fight with us against terrorists and militias. Now is not the time to give up the fight.
Matt Sanchez interviews Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi, the man accredited with starting the Anbar Awakening, and will post the interview soon.

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Friday, June 22, 2007

Sicko, and Friday round-up

Updated

Via Larwyn, Prepare to be Sickened by SiCKO
Literally every day, the mainstream media in the countries whose government-run medical systems Moore holds up as superior models publish stories documenting the failure of mandatory, no-opt-out, state-run medical care. The laundry list of ills, in the U.K. alone, includes patients waiting months or even years for critical drugs and treatments (sometimes becoming disabled or dying because of the delay or lack of care), people denied therapies altogether because of rationing or cost (see, for example, an article last February in The Scotsman, “Cancer patients told life-prolonging treatment is too expensive for NHS”), an explosion in the size of the medical bureaucracy, and thousands of physicians taking to the streets earlier this year to protest.

One bottom line, so to speak, is particularly telling: Moore, who is obese, would most likely be denied a number of common health care procedures and treatments in one of his favored government-controlled socialist medicine systems, the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS), because of his excessive weight. Recently, the cash-strapped NHS actually started limiting or prohibiting therapies for residents who are fat or who smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
In Princeton, the Public Library has been banging the drum on socialized health care for a while, inviting Paul Krugman to ignore the facts about the French healthcare system and featuring a film on Cuba's healthcare at the Princeton Human Rights Film Festival, by which they not only managed to ignore Cuba's huuman rights record but also Cuba's apartheid health care system, even when three members of the audience tried to talk about it.

I expect the PPL will be showing SICKO soon.

Update: Michael Moore's Shticko: His health care jeremiad won't win any converts

And I won't be surprised if Sicko has wonderful things to say about the Venezuelan healthcare; too bad Michael didn't bring along any Norwegian reporters

Speaking of Venezuela,
Remember the fallen viaduct in Caracas?

Well, a new one's up.

In other Venezuelan news, The constitutional changes draft has been leaked: the path to an eternal Chavez dictatorship and kiss what's left of your private property good-bye. Update Dymphna has more on Hugo's latest.
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Joe finds some Academic Fantasies Exploited

Abbas: Hamas Creating ‘Empire of Darkness’ unlike Fatah's sweetness and lignt. The Guardian blames the US and Israel, of course.

Tony Blair's going to Rome

Head-to-toe Muslim veils test tolerance of secular Britain. Indeed.

El Cafe Cubano continues the Friday fast for all political prisoners

Unlike the Brits who allowed themselves to be taken hostage, the Aussies repelled an Iranian attempt to capture a boarding party. Update: Richard North has more on the story and how it's covered by the blogs and by the MSM.
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Via Irwin, June 20, 2007 Paul Krugman Four Years Ago Today. Krugman's wrong on things other than French healthcare, too.
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Via Bob, Harvard Dean of Freshmen Advertises "Scintillating and Sexy" Talk, since college students don't think of sex at all.
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George not-in-my-back-yard Clooney

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Hamas wins in Gaza

UPDATED

Welcome to Hamastan

Hamas captures Fatah security HQ
Hamas militants have seized the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, tightening their control over the Gaza Strip.
...
Hamas also seized control of the town of Rafah as it targeted security and political command centres across Gaza.

Meanwhile, the top Palestinian umbrella group, the PLO, has recommended that the unity government be dissolved and a state of emergency declared.

The road to Hamastan
Hamas may pull back from a final showdown in Gaza, forcing Fatah to sit down and negotiate. But some predict a total split between a “Hamastan” in Gaza and a West Bank ruled by Fatah. No Israeli leader—including Ehud Barak, the former prime minister, who this week won the Labour party’s primary election and could return to power next year—will feel any pressure to talk peace with a Palestinian leadership that is so definitively divided
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred:
If Hamas wins the civil war, their ideologies and beliefs will no longer be camouflaged. we will know how to deal with these same ideologues that supported Saddam Hussein. If the PA wins the civil war, they will have to make some serious choices, or the cycle of internal violence will repeat itself. The only thing that is certain is that neither the western democracies or Israel will allow for another 40 years of Arafat type obfuscation, double talk and hypocrisy from the Palestinians.
Betsy poses a few questions:
"We want them to vote and vote and vote again" on Iraq, said a senior Democratic senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss party strategy. "They are going to have to vote on Iraq until they are sick of it."

The tougher-talking Reid is taking a decidedly harder line on Iraq at a time when anti-war activists are stepping up their criticism of Democratic leaders for not forcing a quick end to the conflict in Iraq.
...
Remember that these are the same sorts who kept pushing for "peace in the Middle East" by forcing Israel to pull out of the Gaza and the West Bank. Well, Israel unilaterally did just what was advised and pulled out of Gaza. And it descended into chaos with Hamas and Fatah conducting their own civil war. Hamas has now won in Gaza giving Iran their little terrorist puppet state there on the borders of Israel and Egypt.

Do Harry Reid, the Democrats, and his blogger pals think that there would be any different fate if we just pulled out of Iraq now? Do they want to see Iraq becoming like Gaza except with more territory, more possible victims, and all that oil that can be used to fuel more terrorism abroad?

Oh, and by the way, how does Nancy Pelosi, diplomat at large, think about her pals in Syria now that they've assassinated another democracy leader in Lebanon? With the assassination of members of the anti-Syria majority in the Lebanese parliament, Hezbollah is trying to literally exterminate that majority. Does she still think that the path to peace travels through Syria?
That is, does she willingly continue to be a pawn?

Update: Hamas Takes Gaza- Executes Fatah Members In the Streets

Update 2, Via LGF, Video: Murderous Hamas Rampage in Gaza

Victor Davis Hanson: Gaza — It’s All Our Fault: Blaming America on CNN is all the rage

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Venezuela and the Human Rights Foundation, and today's other items

Human Rights Foundation Condemns Venezuelan Government Shutdown of TV Station
In a meeting today in honor of Ban Ki-moon at the UN Association, Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen brought the escalating crisis over the impending shutdown of Venezuelan TV channel RCTV to the Secretary-General’s attention, giving him a copy of a letter to Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, co-authored by former UN ambassador Armando Valladares
Meanwhile, Chavez wants to nationalize Sidor, Venezuela's biggest steel mill, which doesn't sit well with the Argentinians.
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The Dem's contempt for our great nation continues to manifest itself: now Steny Hoyer thinks we should also have to pay Guam reparations for what Imperial Japan did to Guam.
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Hamas' "Bloody Moderates": Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
"Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters," said Bahr, according to a transcript by the Middle East Media Research Institute. "Oh Allah, count their numbers and kill them all, down to the very last one . . . Defeat the Jews and the Americans."

Indeed, he added, Americans "are cowards who are eager for life, while we are eager for death for the sake of Allah. That is why America's nose was rubbed in the mud in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia and everywhere."
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The Mexicans dropped trou for Spencer Tunick. Tunick's been at it before.
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Scaremongering at the WaPo: On Your Feet: High Heels' Effects on the Body
Nonsense. I just bought these and they are wonderful: they make for great legs, are comfortable enough to wear all day, and they look great with casual and with dressy clothes. So go ahead, wear heels.


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