Category: The Dish

The editor of the Daily Illini is fired for committing journalism. As if we couldn’t see that coming. But it is important to note that those who fired him take their cues from the New York Times, CNN, Time, the Washington Post and much of the British press. The most important thing for today’s establishment journalists is not relaying the truth but avoiding offense. The student editor didn’t realize that. Now he does. And so Sharia-journalism inches forward.

David Aaronovitch recalls his own intellectual and moral evolution during the Balkan wars. And he remembers Milosevic’s intellectual and moral allies – Harold Pinter and Noam Chomsky among them.

A pertinent piece of information from the former Spanish prime minister, Jose-Maria Aznar:

Aznar’s aides refused to give Haaretz the exact quote, but mentioned an article Aznar has written in the past on his meeting with [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei.
"He received me politely," Aznar wrote, "and at the beginning of the meeting he explained to me why Iran must declare war on Israel and the United States until they are completely destroyed. I made only one request of him: that he tell me the time of the planned attack."

The meeting was five years ago. Iran is only stronger today; and far closer to getting nukes. Khameini is still in power.

"Miss Huffington’s blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog. With my permission Miss Huffington compiled it from interviews with Larry King and The Guardian," – George Clooney. It’s a brave man who comes between Arianna and her self-promotion.

The Islamists can always beat out the Christianists in their intolerance. Here’s a classic from a member of the Syrian government:

"All the diseases that have to do with sexual organs, mainly AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, and so on… When these diseases appeared, they killed millions. More people were killed by these diseases than by wars. The only reason for this is the straying from the divine way regarding fornication, and when I say fornication – "Do not even approach abomination" ‚Äì this means fornication, homosexuality, and all the sexual deviation it entails… The entire world, from the US to the most distant country, acknowledges that if they had stoned the fornicators, and prevented abomination, things would have been much better."

Just an update from the religious right in Islam. (Hat tip: Petrelis.)

Horrible news: the twelve signatories of the anti-Islamist manifesto, "Together facing the new totalitarianism," have now been put under a very credible death threat by a thread on the British Islamist site, Ummah.net. They’ve had random indidivual death threats in the past, but this one has "authority." In response, the twelve are asking for more of us to put our own names to a second manifesto, supporting them against the Islamist brownshirts. The text to be signed is:

"We support the signatories of the Manifesto ‘Together facing the new totalitarianism’  On Saturday, March 11, a thread on the British Islamist site, http://www.ummah.net, issued a death threat against the 12 signatories. The text of the threat is very clear:

‘Excellent – makes killing the kuffar [apostate] all the bit easier… Now we have a hit list of a ‘Who’s Who’ guide to slam into. Take your time but make sure their gone soon – oh and don’t hold out for a fatwah it isn’t really required here.’

We, the undersigned, wish to express our unequivocal support for and solidarity with the twelve signatories and our outrage at the Islamist movement’s attack on them. We stand firm with the 12 against this reactionary movement and join in their call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all."

To sign it, simply email your name to prochoix@prochoix.org. Very soon, they’ll post the manifesto with the names attached. Stand up for those whose freedom and very life is threatened because of their free speech. If our governments and our own media will not stand up for free speech, we can.

Just when you think this administration may have learned something about exaggerating claims or saying things that are not rock-solid in the war on terror, you get the following contrast. On Monday, the president said the following:

"Some of the most powerful IEDs we are seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran.
Our director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, told the Congress, Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq.
Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran. Such actions, along with Iran’s support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, are increasingly isolating Iran."

Yesterday’s Pentagon press conference elicited the following exchange, acording to Reuters:

"President George W. Bush said on Monday components from Iran were being used in powerful roadside bombs used in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel had been inside Iraq.
Asked whether the United States has proof that Iran’s government was behind these developments, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing, ‘I do not, sir.’"

I cannot imagine it’s a good idea for the president to offer what is billed as an honest assesssment of what’s going on in Iraq, while his chief military commander sees no proof for the accusation. We’ve just learned not to trust what this president says about Iran. It keeps getting better, doesn’t it?

"Today, same-sex couples are marrying under the law in Massachusetts. Some are actually having children born to them. It’s not right on paper. It’s not right in fact. Every child has the right to have a mother and a father," – Mitt Romney, to supporters in Utah, last year, an applause line he often reprises to Christianist groups.

"I know that there will be some gay couples who will say that this could be discriminatory against us. Except that there are many, many other agencies that can meet the needs of those gay couples, and I recognize that they have a legitimate interest in being able to receive adoptive services," – Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, Monday.

I guess it’s hard out there for a bigot.

There is no popular writer with real intellectual credentials who has had as much impact on American evangelicalism as C.S. Lewis. He’s often quoted in Republican circles. Fred Barnes I know is a big fan – the same Fred who has dismissed "water-boarding" as a trivial "coercive interrogation technique". Maybe he should have used the euphemism Lewis mocked: "scientific examination." But don’t give Rummy any ideas. Here’s a reader who’s been immersed in Lewis lately:

"I have been rereading C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength from his Space Trilogy, and I came across a quote from a character who’s one of the bad guys. Your discussion of the torture issue brought you to mind when I read these lines, from a figure considering the torture of another:

"Oh," said Wither, "there is nothing I should more deeply deplore. Scientific examination (I cannot allow the word Torture in this context) in cases where the patient doesn’t know the answer is always a fatal mistake. As men of humanity we should neither of us … and then, if you go on, the patient naturally does not recover … and if you stop, even an experienced operator is haunted by the fear that perhaps he did know after all. It is in every way unsatisfactory."

And that’s one of the bad guys!"

But we, as Barnes and Bush would insist, are the good guys. And being the good guys, when we do bad things, that makes them good, see? "We do not torture." Because we’re us.

Ever get a desperate or enticing message frome one PRINCE SOKI MOBUTU, son of the late President Mobutu SeseSekou of Zaire, new Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? A charming fellow, who goes by the name of Ebola Monkey Man, decided to have a lengthy, Ali G-style, correspondence with said Prince. I must say I found it rather amusing. The first reponse is:

"Dear Prince Soki Mobutu,
Hello. My name is Mike. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner but I haven’t checked my email in awhile. Your proposal sounds very interesting to me and I want to help. Let me tell you something about myself and then you can decide if you want to work with me.
I work in the music industry. I’m hoping to cut an album with my boy B-Smooth later next month. I was thinking that if I helped you get this money, then I would have enough to cover our expenses and even make a music video.
What do you think?
Thanks
Mike Banks aka ‘Black Mic – Bitch Honkey Killa’"

It gets better.