What a Way To Go

The latest victims in the Palestinian struggle against the Jews were drowned in filth after an overburdened septic system burst and flooded a village with liquid waste.

The deluge, triggered by the collapse of a septic system aid organisations had long warned was dangerously overburdened, submerged dozens of homes in the Bedouin farming village of Umm al-Nasr beneath a cesspool of foul-smelling effluent.

Two women, one more than 70 years old, and two toddlers aged one and two died in the flood. Fifteen people were injured and scores more are still missing, according to Palestinian medics.

Village children clung to wooden doors floating on the putrid waters as rescuers used boats to help the victims.

“The situation is very bad,” village mayor Ziad Abu Thabet said, comparing the disaster to a “tsunami.” “Around 70 percent of the village houses were flooded by the waters,” he said.

We can only expect the situation to worsen as disease and infection start to spread from the waste explosion.

This may have been avoided had the Palestinians spent money on improvements to archaic infrastructure instead of rockets they can fire into Israel. But the politics of hate are seldom rational.

500 Posts for The Autopsy

And thanks a bunch to the Anchoress and all her loyal readers for stopping by yesterday for one of my better jokes.

Today’s headline: Korean in Hot Water for Anti-Semitic Book

Outrage! Anger! Headlines on Yahoo! Can you believe a textbook had this teaching in it?

One comic strip in the book shows a man climbing a hill and then facing a brick wall with a Star of David and “STOP” sign in front. “The final obstacle to success is always a fortress called Jews,” a translation says.

Another strip shows a newspaper, magazine, TV and radio with the description: “In a word, American public debate belongs to the Jews, and it’s no exaggeration to say that U.S. media are the voice of the Jews.”

Good thing this is limited to just Korea. I mean, what if it happened in Britain in a Muslim school? Oh, that’s right, you’d really have to be paying attention to notice.

You’re not fooling anyone. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.

Pajamas Media had an unconfirmed report that the Burrito Supremo of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, died a few days ago. Well, they were wrong, and the Ayatollah showed up just to prove them wrong. He was thinner, coughing, and perspiring, so you can’t say he’s looking well.

Maybe the connection with the source was bad. Maybe he meant to say, “He not dead…yet.”

Just goes to show you that everything in life can be related to a Monty Python Sketch from Youtube. (Sorry about the audio– seems messed up.)

Port of Miami Shutdown

What do you call it when you’re kind of liveblogging a matter but you may have to go potty your children at any time? I’ll “liveblog” it (watching FOX news), but no guarantees it’ll still be live. I know. I’ll call it “undead blogging”– kind of live, kind of dead, undead blogging.

Fox news keeps showing a loop video with a police officer taking pictures of the back of a held shipping truck.

There’s a great shot of a couple of journos hanging around the microphone. Gotta love the Sunday dressed-down tech guys.

I want to know where they get those microphone holders. They are currently stripping the video markers from the mics. Before the holders were stripped, I notice much local coverage, a FOX mic, and one from Telemundo! CNN is currently covering the housing market. CNNHN is in commercial break. And MSNBC is showing off a golden statue of Keith Olberman paid for by Keith and Arianna Huffington! Just kidding. It’s in commercial break.

3:22 PM CT: Jets get killed by New England. Jets held on there but totally fell apart at the end. It’s a moot point. Whoever won is going to get killed by San Diego.

3:24 PM CT: Press Conference set for 3:45 my time. The bomb squad is on scene. The men being held are all Americans of Middle Eastern descent.

3:35 PM CT: That didn’t last long. My wife is here with the baby and it watching ‘Nigella Feasts”. I’ll do what I can from the Fox News website.

4:15 PM CT: News conference is on, baby!

Port of Miami is safe. All cargo ops continued uninterrupted.

Driver did not have proper ID for routine background check for One Day Pass conducted by Miami Dade Police.

Two additional passengers were in the back of the cab. “Miscommunication” on the amount of passengers in the cab raised level of concern. Security lockdown quickly followed.

List of people involved. I’m surprised CAIR wasn’t named.

Contents matched the manifest.

So, I’ll stop blogging at this point. Everything seems hunky-dory. And for all those waiting for their auto-parts, they’ll be a little late.

Oh, and get the lawyers ready. We’ll hear about this horrible case of Racial Profiling soon. CAIR will be up in arms. And we’ll hear many remarks about how a few extremists have hijacked Islam.

4:25 PM: Oh, and all of these legal immigrants (the driver was 20 years old) were coming from Dearborn, MI. Ok, now I’m a little freaked out. I think this may be a probe of security at the port.

What a great way to make $450,000

Be a Muslim Imam, make a spectacle of yourself, get thrown off a plane, then sue the airline because your civil rights were “violated”.

What aggravates me the most is that these jackasses will probably walk away with some kind of cash settlement because it’s cheaper to settle out of court than take it to trial.

Terrorists are dangerous because of the ideology and their willingness to exploit the freedoms of their host countries to strike against them. This is litigious terrorism.

I got spam from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

If you haven’t read Ahmadinejad’s letter, you really should. It moved my heart. I was touched and impressed and I’m sure people will start calling him a Rovian Plant in the Middle East.

Why? Well, let’s break down some of the letter.

The first part is platitude. We all think evil things are bad, and good things are good. Except the Bush Administration, of course.

The second part, which I’ll call “Common Pains”:

We, like you, are aggrieved by the ever-worsening pain and misery of the Palestinian people. Persistent aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for the rightful owners of the land of Palestine. In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief.

Zionists is a red-flag. It would be like saying, “Persistent aggressions by those ‘negroes‘ are making life more difficult.” It’s a word that’s totally loaded with subtext. In addition, Ahmadinejad totally glosses over suicide bombings, car bombings, rocket attacks by Hamas & Hezbollah, and actions such as the dismantling of Israeli settlements, release of prisoners, and the general giving the Zionists have been doing for the past 20 years to achieve a lasting peace in the region.

For 60 years, the Zionist regime has driven millions of the inhabitants of Palestine out of their homes. Many of these refugees have died in the Diaspora and in refugee camps. Their children have spent their youth in these camps and are aging while still in the hope of returning to homeland.

Last I checked, the residents of Palestine were offered a chance to return but instead sided with the armies of Nasser. Egypt, Syria, and Jordan launched wars to conquer Israel and the Zionists, but were turned back at every stage. And if you pick the losers in a war, you live in refugee camps. Or you assimilate in sympathetic countries that offer you citizenship. The question I have– after 60 years, why haven’t the compassionate nations around Palestine absorbed the refugees into their borders? Why do they insist to forcing the Palestinians into lands that most of them have never lived on? Why is it always Israel that must grant the Palestinians the “right of return” when Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Yemen all have economies which could support displaced peoples?

Let’s take a look at Iraq. Since the commencement of the US military presence in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced. Terrorism in Iraq has grown exponentially. With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty. The US Government used the pretext of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but later it became clear that that was just a lie and a deception.

Iraq. That’s funny. If Iran was serious about peace in the region, they’d be leaning on Sadr and his goons to straighten up and work with the new government. But they don’t. No words are offered, no admonition. Ahmadinejad says he abhors terrorism, but we don’t hear him condemning suicide bombers in Iraq. You don’t see him calling for Osama Bin Laden’s head.

In Iraq, about one hundred and fifty thousand American soldiers, separated from their families and loved ones, are operating under the command of the current US administration. A substantial number of them have been killed or wounded and their presence in Iraq has tarnished the image of the American people and government.

Ahmadinejad makes it sound like the US Soldiers just walk around, pining for home, getting blown up while occasionally torturing an innocent Iraqi. It’s all one-sided. It’s propaganda. Never does he acknowledge the good that’s being done in Iraq. (Wow, kind of sounds like the AP.)

But, Christmas comes early. It’s Ahmadinejad’s belated Ramadan gift to us.

You have heard that the US administration is kidnapping its presumed opponents from across the globe and arbitrarily holding them without trial or any international supervision in horrendous prisons that it has established in various parts of the world. God knows who these detainees actually are, and what terrible fate awaits them.

You have certainly heard the sad stories of the Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib prisons. The US administration attempts to justify them through its proclaimed “war on terror.” But every one knows that such behavior, in fact, offends global public opinion, exacerbates resentment and thereby spreads terrorism, and tarnishes the US image and its credibility among nations.

The US administration’s illegal and immoral behavior is not even confined to outside its borders. You are witnessing daily that under the pretext of “the war on terror,” civil liberties in the United States are being increasingly curtailed. Even the privacy of individuals is fast losing its meaning. Judicial due process and fundamental rights are trampled upon. Private phones are tapped, suspects are arbitrarily arrested, sometimes beaten in the streets, or even shot to death.

He’s been reading DailyKos! But wait, there’s more!

Now that Iraq has a Constitution and an independent Assembly and Government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home, and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people? As you know very well, many victims of Katrina continue to suffer, and countless Americans continue to live in poverty and homelessness.

It’s like reading the PuffingTons Host! And the third part, which I’ll call “Dear Speaker Pelosi”

I’d also like to say a word to the winners of the recent elections in the US:

The United States has had many administrations; some who have left a positive legacy, and others that are neither remembered fondly by the American people nor by other nations.

Now that you control an important branch of the US Government, you will also be held to account by the people and by history.

If the US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America. But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration’s policies. These issues had been extensively dealt with in my letter to President Bush earlier this year.

So, Ahmadinejad wants the US to change its direction, to stop doing what it’s doing. It wants to Democrats to change the direction of US foreign policy. If the Democrats do change policy now, the Right can simply say, “Hey, you’re caving to the demands of that crazy guy who runs Iran!”

So what do the Democrats want to do? Side with Bush, or side with Iran? Which makes them more likable? Hmmmm?

Six Imams Walk Onto A Plane…

Hopefully you have all heard about the six Imams who were removed from a flight due to suspicious behavior. The way the story was disseminated earlier made me believe that the imams all got on a plane after doing some praying and some Islamophobe passed a note to a flight attendant that made her call the cops on the imams. And then the cries of racism started coming from CAIR, and subsequent protests followed.

Well, according to the Washington Times, it looks like the imams may have been doing more than just praying. From the Times story:

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted “Allah” when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.

On it own, it’s not frightening. But:

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks — two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.
“That would alarm me,” said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. “They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane.”

A pilot from another airline said: “That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry.”

It would alarm me, too. Especially if another pilot is saying that their behavior mimicked the actions of the 9/11 terrorists.

But the imams who were escorted off the flight in handcuffs say they were merely praying before the 6:30 p.m. flight on Nov. 20, and yesterday led a protest by prayer with other religious leaders at the airline’s ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, called removing the imams an act of Islamophobia and compared it to racism against blacks.
“It’s a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while black and flying while Muslim,” Mr. Bray said.

Here’s an eye opener for you, Mr. Bray. If you don’t pray loudly and then rearrange your seats in a suspicious manner, you won’t get thrown off an airplane.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas Democrat, said the September 11 terrorist attacks “cannot be permitted to be used to justify racial profiling, harassment and discrimination of Muslim and Arab Americans.”

And there’s the PC mentality that’s eventually going to get a lot of us killed. Sheila, we’re fighting a global war on terror. And Buddhists, Animists, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Wiccans, Atheists and Agnostics around the world are not strapping bombs to themselves to kill as many civilians as possible.

It’s just the Muslims. So if we didn’t have an extra level of scrutiny when dealing with Muslims, especially a group of Muslims acting in a suspicious manner, then we are living in a PC fairyland.

Stopping a black man in a Mercedes just because he’s black is racist. Stopping 6 imams from flying on a plane after they were praying overtly and rearranging their seats is reasonable diligence.

MORE can be found at HotAir.

Why is it always Israel’s fault?

Mark Levine over at the PuffingTons Host, a noted “expert” on Middle East Relations (although it sounds like he’s an expert on Palestinian relations from his bio) , has a piece about the assassination of Pierre Gemayel. It’s typical Israeli Conspiratorial Think. Behold:

In the wake of the latest political assassination to rock Lebanon–this week’s shooting of Pierre Gemayel, a scion of one of Lebanon’s foremost Maronite political families–suspicion was fallen on the Syrians, and perhaps Hezbollah as the most likely culprits.

There is some logic to this view, given Syria’s likely involvement in the assassination in February 2005 of Prime Minister Rafiq Harriri.

Gemayal’s is the fifth assassination since Harriri’s; most every victim was critical of the Syrians, and to a lesser extent Hezbollah.

But even if we grant that Syria was behind Harriri’s assassination (and as I explained in a posting at the time, http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/17319.html, there is very good evidence to support this assessment) it is hard to see what Syria or Hezbollah gain from Gemayel’s killing. Syria is in a stronger regional position than it has been in years. The Bush administration has been forced to eat crow and negotiate with Damascus in order to gain its help tamping down the insurgency in Iraq. It’s main sponsor, Iran, is similarly in its strongest geostrategic position in decades, and its ally Hezbollah emerged as the political winner of this summer’s war with Israel.

So why would Syria risk upsetting this favorable balance by killing a Maronite politician when Hezbollah had already bolted the government and was threatening massive demonstrations to bring down the post Cedar Revolution political arrangement in favor of one that would better reflect its–and thus Syria’s–increasing power? And this question can be asked of anyone who thinks that Hezbollah was somehow involved in or sanctioned the murder, which has sapped the energy out of its latest political machination.

He’s answered his own question. Syria is in a strong position. Therefore they can afford to take a stronger stance in influencing Lebanese politics. It’s typical thug mentality. In order to prevent me from acting like a thug, you have caved to my actions. So, since I am in a stronger position, I will do more to see just how much I can get away with.

It’s also how a toddler behaves if you don’t set strong limits.

But Levine can’t stop there. You can’t be a Islamist sympathizer and blame Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, or Iran. So you have to make the only logical jump:

As far as I can see, the only party that benefits from Gemayel’s assassination is Israel. Israel was the main loser in last summer’s war, at least politically and strategically. The country’s leaders began threatening a new round of fighting even before they began pulling troops out of the south of Lebanon. Hezbollah’s post-war ascendence was the most visible and troubling sign of Israel’s seemingly unprecedented military weakness and strategic blundering.

Israel, in order to “save face” killed one of the leading politicians in the government who was advocating strong ties with Israel and elimination of Hezbollah. Because it makes sense.

I saw similar thinking after 9/11, that Mossad was behind the attacks so that Americans would take action against terrorists in a more serious manner.

But we have to succumb, ultimately, to Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is often the correct one.

UPDATE: Mark Levine is whining in the comments to his post that people are “misinterpreting” what he’s saying:

i do not want to suggest that syria and hezbollah could not have been behind the killing, or that they are incapable of doing stupid things. the killing of harriri being a case in point for syrian strategic blundering, as i detailed in the post i referenced in the piece above. however, before we think about who did something stupid, we need to think about who did something which from their perspective was smart, or at least made sense strategically. from this perspective israel would seem to be the most obvious beneficiary of lebanon descending into some sort of internecine conflict that ties down and weakens hezbollah, which would then leave it less able to help out its buddies in hamas. if that is not the case, then we can move to the second question, which would be who could have done something this stupid, at which point the syrians are the likely culprit.

How very e.e. cummings. The highlighted part is very interesting, simply because his previous post is that Israel is behind the killing. So, Mark, you are suggesting that Syria and Hezbollah are not behind the killing. In addition, he’s saying that the killing of a vocal opponent to Hezbollah in the Parliament to muscle conformity isn’t smart nor is it good sense. Hey, if you can get away with it, why not do it?

He has a second comment, the first part explaining the word “speculative” to someone (which was warranted but amusing, given his doublespeak a few posts prior):

but why is suggesting that israel could have been involved in this assassination mean that ‘israel is responsible for much of the world’s ills.’ why is any accusation against israel automatically inflated to an accusation against the very existence of israel? such accusations betray a lack of intellectual, never mind academic, integrity.

Mark has a point, to a degree. Suggesting Israel was behind the assassination does have a degree of believability (although the long-term positive of having Gamayel in the Lebanese Government would outweigh a short-lived popularity spike from his assassination). But the issue of being Anti-Israel comes from the raising of the spectre of conspiracy. It is so foreign to Mark to think Syria, Iran, and/or Hezbollah had something to do with this conflict that he immediately points to Israel as the culprit, an action taken by every anti-Zionist regime in the world. So it’s not that he’s saying he’s anti-Israel so much as he’s parroting the same conspiratorial garbage that we get from hardcore Islamist editorials and sermons from radical Imams. That’s why Mark is labelled as an Anti-Zionist– guilt by association.

But I won’t go so far as to label Levine an anti-Zionist. He’s got issues with Hezbollah, too. He wants to be called a “progressive”, but I’m not sure he fits that label. He really wants to believe that resistance to Israel and the US are good things, but he’s discovering it’s not always as easy as “Republicans bad” as many of his colleagues tend to believe.

I’ve seen this behavior before. It’s what happens when an idealistic liberal starts discovering that conservatism isn’t all that bad. Sorry to break the news to you, Mark.

They’re right: Ahmadinejad isn’t Hitler

(h/t Little Green Footballs for links)

Nazism scapegoated the Jews from a secular angle. It also focused hate on a particular group to drum up unity and aggressiveness. There was a lot of hate in Germany following the “blank check” policy they wrote to France after the WWI Armistice. Jews were a minority and already had substantial prejudice laid against them from Christians who held the Crucifixion Grudge and from others who saw them as an invader.

We fought a war against Nazism and won. We made sure that we stood up for what’s right and took a stand against the genocidal maniacs in the world.

But don’t get your hopes up. There are still many people who hate the Jews, particularly Israel, for refusing to be annihilated. This should be a shock to most Americans, who, despite what Al Sharpton says, are the most racially integrated and understanding people on the planet. Now, most anti-Jew sentiment is anti-Israeli sentiment. But seriously, can you say with a straight face “I hate Israel, but I don’t hate Jews?”

What should even be more of a shock is that a former US President has written a book basically lauding the Palestinian causes. If you have any doubt, read the comments on the Amazon.com page. I’ll highlight one for you that gave Carter’s book 5 stars:

Israel is the root of the world’s problems, November 21, 2006

Reviewer:

D. Soura - See all my reviews

At least somebody with status is willing to speak out about Israel’s atrocities. Carter is right on target to label this an “apartheid” state! In case you didn’t know how deeply rooted this problem is I would recommend David Duke’s Jewish Supremacism, which is also available on Amazon.

Is it any wonder why we just got duped into a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, when our media is completely monopolized by Zionists and our government has a hugely disproportionate number of Israel lovers? If you don’t believe me please visit these two links and then start doing some research!

The Zionists control it all! How could I have been so blind!

But it’s typical. If you want to see a good rebuttal on the subject, especially from someone who’s read the book, here’s Alan Dershowitz at the PuffingTons Host. I highly recommend you read the comments as well, just to get a sense of the growing anti-Semitism that plagues the “tolerant” liberal community.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe. It coincides with the increase in the Muslim population as well.

You can see it at soccer games between Jews and Muslims, games which are supposed to foster cooperation and brotherhood (so long as the Jews lose).

New NATO member Turkey is trying two Muslim-to-Christian converts who did the unthinkable– evangelize. All the while protesters in Turkey storm the Hagia Sophia and threaten the Pope before his visit.

Miss Brussels declared that Israel should be wiped off the map. This really put her hopes to be Miss Beligum in jeopardy. That’s OK. She’s in tight with the Marxist-Leninist party.

I’ve already talked about Syrian apologists, like Mark Levine, who think Israel is behind all bad things.

And of course, there’s the UN. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour was recently very critical of Israel for its military strategy in latest war. When asked about the difference between attacking a civilian area with rockets and firing on a rocket launcher in a civilian area, she said the two could not be equated. Which is great. Then she said the following:

“In one case you could have, for instance, a very objectionable intent - the intent to harm civilians, which is very bad - but effectively not a lot of harm is actually achieved,” she said. “But how can you compare that with a case where you may not have an intent but you have recklessness [in which] civilian casualties are foreseeable? The culpability or the intent may not sound as severe, but the actual harm is catastrophic.”

According to her, it’s actually worse to attack a military target using its own people as civilians than it is to allow that rocket launcher to fire on civilian populations unchallenged! She’s daft. Now, if her stand is become that of the standard nation, then all you have to do is put your missile launchers on top of hospitals and day-care centers and you can fire missiles all you want. And the UN will say, “Hey, that’s really bad. You might want to think about shooting less of them or stopping all together, OK?” And meanwhile, to spare their civilian population these attacks, a jet flies in, fires a missile into the position, and it’s an atrocity because “there were civilians nearby”?!!?!?!?!?! What a double standard!

So we can see that the far-left liberal movement is against Israel. They want to push Israel into the sea. Ahmadinejad is right on board. But he’s not Hitler. No, he’s just after a political advantage.

Too bad the intent is made clear by the population. And if people like Jimmy Carter get their say, it’ll happen, and nobody will lift a finger to help the slaughter of millions of Jews.

Anti-Hezbollah Lebanese PM is Killed by Unknown Gunman

Pierre Gamayel, Lebanese PM, was gunned down in his car earlier today. He was a Lebanese Parliamentarian who was fighting Syrian involvement in his country, and therefore fighting Hezbollah in the Lebanese government.

But nobody knows who kills him. Right? Right.

Syria has condemned the killing. So has the US. Who’s responsible? It was probably a drive-by killing by muggers. Or a mistaken identity. Hezbollah would never do this, nor would Syria. It’s not like they’ve done this kind of thing in the past.

Listen, that’s the way the terrorist mindset works. Kill those who oppose you. Hariri was killed to send a message not to oppose Syria. Now Gamayel has gotten the same message.

I fully expect this to backfire. We saw how Lebanon responded to Hariri’s killing. It will respond the same way to Gamayel’s killing. This time they should oust Hezbollah– take the parliamentary seats away and label Hezbollah an illegal group. Lebanon can’t antagonize Syria, but they can certainly antagonize Hezbollah.

The clearest way to do this would be to seek a joint military operation with Israel to eliminate Hezbollah from the South. They should even ask the UN for help, or ask them to leave, because if they stay they’ll just protect the terrorists.

This is what happens when you do not submit. They try and kill you. Are we the people who will stand up to the thugs, or will we slowly give away our freedoms to avoid conflict?

Syria has condemned the killings, but they have to. They know who’s behind the assassination, and they won’t lift a finger to help find them.

(Related: Malkin, HotAir, LGF, PajamasMedia)