UPDATE: The AP media bias

I wrote my 1 p.m. post earlier today and scheduled it. Here’s the lead from the first version of the AP story about Tzipi Livni calling for new elections:

Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni on Sunday abandoned her efforts to form a new coalition government and said she would recommend early parliamentary elections.

Palestinians worried the decision could put already fragile peace talks in limbo for months until the elections are held. The balloting could also clear the way for opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejects sweeping territorial concessions to the Palestinians, to reclaim the premiership.

And here’s the lead in the AP update:

Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni abandoned efforts to form a government Sunday, putting Israel on course for new elections and endangering already fragile Middle East peace talks.

Palestinians fear the decision could put a year’s worth of peace talks in limbo for months, until elections are held. The balloting opens the door for opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejects sweeping territorial concessions to the Arabs, to return to power.

There’s also this, which wasn’t in the earlier piece:

Peacemaking foundered during Netanyahu’s 3-year tenure as prime minister in the 1990s, and his positions have not softened since.

He quit Ariel Sharon’s government because he opposed Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and opposes ceding sovereignty over any part of east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Do you know what they fail to mention? Why peacemaking “foundered” during Netanyahu’s term.

As Prime Minister, Netanyahu negotiated with Yasser Arafat in the form of the Wye River Accords (1998). No progress was made regarding negotiations with the Palestinians, and although they failed to implement agreed-upon steps of the Oslo Accords, Netanyahu turned over most of Hebron to Palestinian jurisdiction. In 1996, Netanyahu and Jerusalem’s mayor Ehud Olmert decided to open an exit for the Western Wall Tunnel. This sparked three days of rioting by Palestinians, resulting in both Israelis and Palestinians being killed.

You see, Netanyahu turned over Hebron to Arafat, but the Palestinians rioted over lies that their precious aqsa mosque was being destroyed (obviously, it was not).

But just in case you weren’t sure that Netanyahu was one of those evil Likud guys that Obama likes to denigrate, the AP points it out for you. And lays all the blame of the “foundering” peace talks on his shoulders. Not on, say the terrorist bombings that happened just before and during his term as PM:

  • Mar 3, 1996 – In a suicide bombing of bus No. 18 on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, 19 were killed (16 civilians and 3 soldiers).
  • Mar 4, 1996 – Outside Dizengoff Center in Tel-Aviv, a suicide bomber detonated a 20-kilogram nail bomb, killing 13 (12 civilians and one soldier).
  • Mar 21, 1997 – Three people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb on the terrace of a Tel Aviv cafe. 48 people were wounded.
  • Jul 30, 1997 – 16 people were killed and 178 wounded in two consecutive suicide bombings in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.
  • Sep 4, 1997 – Five people were killed and 181 wounded in three suicide bombings on the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem.
  • Oct 29, 1998 – One Israeli soldier was killed when a terrorist drove an explosives-laden car into an Israeli army jeep escorting a bus with 40 elementary school students from the settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip.

Funny how the AP doesn’t mention these things.

I do.

Posted in AP Media Bias, Israel, Terrorism | Tagged , | 1 Comment

AP shocked at Israeli democracy

The AP never fails to disappoint. Now they’re upset that—horrors—an election might give Israelis a chance to elect someone the AP doesn’t agree with.

Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni on Sunday abandoned her efforts to form a new coalition government and said she would recommend early parliamentary elections.

Palestinians worried the decision could put already fragile peace talks in limbo for months until the elections are held. The balloting could also clear the way for opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejects sweeping territorial concessions to the Palestinians, to reclaim the premiership.

Oh noes! Israelis could vote for Likud again! And we all know what that means. It’s Obamanable:

“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, then you’re anti-Israel, and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel,” leading Democratic presidential contender Illinois Senator Barack Obama said Sunday.

I love the “early elections” bit. They are long overdue.

Shas asked for too much. Livni was either more explicit with the Israeli press, or the AP cleaned up her quotes.

“I’m sick of this extortion,” Livni was quoted as telling her advisers. “We’ll see all these heroes in 90 days.”

However, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. That article says Livni has postponed her meeting with Peres, leading some to believe that Shas has lowered its ransom demand to a reasonable level for Livni.

Really, really disgusts me, the politics in Israel. You need to rewrite your election laws completely, Israel.

Posted in AP Media Bias, Israel, Politics | 4 Comments

Carnival of the Jews

Three out of four of Jews are voting for Obama, but we can still read what they’re saying. Because I think I found most of the 25% that aren’t Obamatons.

Haveil Havalim is here this week.

Some clips:

More on “Every Day is ‘Hit a Jew’ Day”

A sukkah on wheels (yes, really) and one on a boat, and one that used to have squirrels in residence.

Elisson on Simchat Torah, and why there was a baby bonnet on a Torah reader at his schul.

Funny.

Feline funny.

Not funny: Yid with Lid on the al-Dura hoax. (I’d probably link more often there, but he’s got reverse type, and, well, I simply will not read white text on black background. I have ranted about it before. It stops me from reading more than one decent blogger, in fact. I look for alternate skins on those blogs, and I never find them. As for reading it via RSS: I don’t like sending my readers to reverse-type blogs. Sorry.)

As for the rest, well, read it yourselves. We all have different tastes, and you’ll find something for everyone there.

Posted in Jews, Linkfests | 1 Comment

If you’re not angry you haven’t been paying attention

I’ve the bumper sticker with the phrase “If you’re not angry you haven’t been paying attention” around a bit over the past few years. I’m assuming it’s an anti-Bush mantra. I think that it’s wrong in that case, but it’s 100% about the upcoming American election.

So here’s some advice. Do you want to be informed?

Check out the latest post from In Context, Sponge Mode for links to 5 excellent articles about different aspects of the election.

And if that’s not enough, Check out Gateway Pundit’s Confirmed: MSM Holds Video Of Barack Obama Attending Jew-Bash & Toasting a Former PLO Operative… Refuse to Release the Video!

(h/t LGF)

And if that’s not enough please check out “In what kind of nation, do the media investigate critics more than candidates?” at Daled Amos.

Please understand that we are being poorly served by our media. The information that would allow the electorate to make an informed choice has been withheld or distorted. These articles will fill in some of the blanks.

But don’t just read these articles. If you know an undecided voter, send these articles to her. If you know someone who is supporting Sen. Obama but not strongly, consider sending them to him.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Posted in Bloggers, Linkfests, Politics | Tagged | Comments Off on If you’re not angry you haven’t been paying attention

UN Human Rights rep: Steady with the Israel-hatred

The UN is keeping up its tradition of ignoring all human rights offenses of the Arab and Muslim nations (cf: Executing gays in Iran, drug dealers in Saudi Arabia, whippings, cutting off of hands, “honor killings,” the status of women and non-Muslims, etc., etc., etc.) and concentrating solely on Israel. And this time, the special, ah, rapporteur (can we dump the stupid French words already?) is: A Jew. Actually, I think he’s what Snoopy calls an “Assajew.”

The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the territories has accused Israel of failing to halt settlement expansion in keeping with the Annapolis protocols and of violating the Geneva Conventions in Gaza.

Richard Falk, an American Jewish law professor who has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, recommended Thursday that the UN resume economic assistance to Gaza irrespective of whether Hamas satisfies political conditions set by Israel.

He also suggested that the General Assembly ask the International Court of Justice to conduct an assessment of Israeli actions in Gaza and said the UN should ask Switzerland to convene a review of Israel’s compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

This guy’s going all-out in his effort to delegitimize the State of Israel, and yet, does he say a word about the Hamas repression of Palestinians in Gaza? I’m thinking… no.

He cited increased checkpoint security in the West Bank as evidence that the Israeli government was reneging on promises made at Annapolis, which were “specifically understood to commit Israel both to ease restrictions on movement of Palestinians subject to occupation and to freeze settlement activity.”

Hm. Increased checkpoint security. Now why would that be? Could it be perhaps because the Palestinians have been increasing their attempts to murder Israelis by smuggling bombs through the checkpoints?

IDF troops guarding Hawara checkpoint, south of Nablus, apprehended a Palestinian youth after a pipe bomb was found on his person. The bomb was detonated in a controlled environment, and the youth was transferred to security forces for questioning.

The youth arrived from the direction of Nablus on Saturday, and roused the suspicion of the soldiers. They asked him to lower his bag and step back, and a search of the bag revealed the pipe bomb.

Don’t be silly. There can’t be a logical reason for it. In the world of the UN, there are no excuses for Israel to be subjecting Palestinians to searches whatsoever. In the world of the UN, there is no reason for an armed presence anywhere within Israel, you see. Israel should just disarm herself completely and submit to the will of the Palestinians, presumably. In which case, there would shortly be no Jews left in Israel.

Israel, of course, is protesting. It’s futile, but it must be done.

Israeli envoy Ady Schonmann, a human rights expert in the Foreign Ministry, appeared before the committee to criticize the report, saying that it reflected the “partisan political position which has taken root at the Human Rights Council.”

[…] Schonmann protested the “unbalanced nature” of Falk’s report, which did not take into account terrorist acts perpetrated by the Palestinians and legitimized Hamas while ignoring “the fact that Hamas’s own leaders continue to call for the total destruction of the State of Israel, to reject a two-state solution, to reject the Annapolis process and to declare their active support for terrorism.”

Schonmann also criticized Falk for relying on anonymous sources and cherry-picking academics to support his claims.

So how did Falk come back? By whining that Israel refused to give him a visa into Gaza. Yeah, probably because they figured no matter what, he’d come up with an anti-Israel report like this. And to see just how effing idiotic this man is:

Falk’s appointment by the UN’s Human Rights Council was roundly rejected by Israel, which cited Falk’s comparison in 2007 of Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany.

Falk told the BBC in an April interview that he made the comparison to shock Americans, adding that he felt the Gaza situation was akin to the crisis in Darfur or the repression of Tibet.

Sure. It’s just like Darfur, where Muslims are murdering, raping, and enslaving Africans, with an estimated 200,000 killed. Yep. Just like it. The Israelis must be hiding the mass graves or something. But hey, Falk feels like it’s the same, and in this modern world, feelings are facts. Just ask the Obamatons.

Posted in Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israeli Double Standard Time | Tagged | 2 Comments

And now, for a brief giggle

Typos can be so much fun.

Look out for those old Israelis in their rockers. They might smush your feet.

Posted in Humor | 3 Comments

Stabbings, firebombings, and yeshiva burnings—in Israel

Jews are being stabbed, firebombed, and their yeshivas burned down—in Israel. Not in Europe, at least, not at this time.

A fire broke out Saturday night in a hesder yeshiva (program which combines advanced Talmudic studies with military service) in the northern city of Akko. There were no injuries, but the building sustained damage.

The city’s firefighting services reported that an initial investigation into the incident pointed to arson.

The fire broke out at around 3:30 am in a yeshiva located in one of the city’s mixed neighborhoods. Local firefighters were dispatched to the area and managed to put out the fire.

Another stabbing:

A 20-year-old Arab attempted to stab an Israel Nature and National Parks Service inspector Sunday, in Jerusalem’s Yad Avshalon neighborhood, near the Mount of Olives.

The inspector drew his weapon and was able to overpower his assailant, unharmed.

The molotov cocktail attacks seem to have eased off for the moment, but rest assured they’ll be back. A cheap and easy way to try to kill Jews—lob a firebomb into their car as they drive past, or at their bus, or even at their homes.

In Eretz Yisrael. Not in Nazi Germany. And the incitement that causes this hatred and violence? Well, that never stops. Because the world blames it on the “occupation,” not on the Arabs being raised on a steady diet of Jew-hatred. And oh yeah—the “wall” being built to prevent terror attacks. Yes, that “wall” causes terror attacks. Except that it doesn’t, unless you call the weekly riots against the fence terror attacks.

Posted in Israel, Terrorism | Tagged | Comments Off on Stabbings, firebombings, and yeshiva burnings—in Israel

Caturday night fever

As I’ve been nursing a sore throat all day, I haven’t accomplished much. Well, except for, since I really couldn’t do anything else, backing up every single photo I’ve taken since 2002, except for the ones I lost in the HD crash (and those may yet be recovered). I already had most of them on CD, but I figure you can’t have too many backups. Then I decided to finally put on all the Windows updates I’ve been putting off. SP3 is now on, and it didn’t crash my computer. Pays to wait. (Yes, I backed up before I updated, Nervous Nellies.)

Looking at the old pictures of Tig the Second brought back memories. I may have to bring some of those pics out of storage. Wow, what a belly he had. Meantime, we have the latest pictures of Tig and Gracie.

Gracie is a creature of habit. She has her routines, and she likes them. They are written in stone. She will not come into the bed on the right-hand side, only the left. In fact, for two years in Montclair, she stopped sleeping in my bed completely because I switched the nighttable to the other side, and moved myself to the right side of the bed instead of the left. The left was her side. I found that out when I moved to Richmond, and switched back to the other side of the bed. I was suddenly a two bedcat household again.

This is Gracie’s newest spot.

Gracie's spot

I see her upstairs all the time. She likes to poke her head through the rail and look down at me. Cats like being up high. The better to jump down and eat you with (they really do think they’re as big as tigers).

Tig couldn’t be any more different than Gracie. His spot is near me. And he likes shelves. Every day as I work in my office, he finds a spot and sacks out (when he isn’t driving me crazy by, say, biting my feet, like he’s doing now). This was his favorite spot. He can’t have it any more. I put books in it.

Tig's spot

His new spot is behind the books on the bottom shelf of a different bookshelf. He knocks over a bunch of books on the way in or out. It’s where he hid from the cleaning crew. I see no hope in breaking him of this habit. Perhaps I should leave a space for him to go in and out instead of constantly having to pick up the books he’s knocked down.

Cats.

Posted in Cats | Tagged | 5 Comments

Joe Biden says: Pres. Obama will draw attacks

He guarantees it.

Go ahead. Vote for Obama. Because that’s what America needs, a weak leader in a time of a two-front war.

Posted in Politics | Tagged | 3 Comments

“Moderate” Iranian says: Don’t gloat, guys

The pretend-moderate Iranian cleric (Snoopy’s been on the case here, here, and here) told his fellow America-haters to stop gloating about our financial crisis. Yeah, it really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that as the West goes, so goes the less-developed world.

“We should not think the financial crisis that hit the world is in our interest and so on and express joy,” Rafsanjani, who heads a powerful clerical body, said in comments on state radio.

“It should not be that some say the crisis is very good for us and it is a miracle coming from God to punish them (the West),” said the cleric, who also said in September Washington was paying for its past policy mistakes.

“The first negative consequence of the wave is the fall in oil prices … The drop in oil causes major damage to us. We have to be alert and cooperate with each other to contain the negative results of the next wave coming from this tsunami.”

They’re sweating in Iran. Even Reuters is acknowledging that their budget requires much higher oil prices than the current ones.

Some economists say Iran, which a few years ago lived with oil around $20 to $25 a barrel, now needs $70 to $75 a barrel.

“That is the minimum the government needs in order to keep the government budget sustainable and not to withdraw reserves from the Oil Stabilization Fund which is already empty. There is no other reserve for the government,” said one Iranian economist, speaking before the latest oil price plunge.

The International Monetary Fund has said that to keep the current account in the black Iran needs more than $75 a barrel for its crude. Others say Tehran may need as much as $100.

Gee, maybe they should be expending all that effort in something other than obtaining a nuclear bomb—like finding something that the world wants to buy from Iran besides oil and rugs. (Can I get one of those flying ones? I’ve always wanted one of those.)

Don’t think this guy doesn’t qualify for the batshit crazy post of the usual Iranian nuttery. He’s accusing the U.S. of nuking Iraq during the first Gulf War. Watch them start using that the next time the U.S. tries to get Iran sanctioned by the UNSC over its nuke program.

By the way—the next time you hear so-called “moderate” is the one who said that Iran could absorb a nuclear blast, but Israeli couldn’t.

Rafsanjani said that Muslims must surround colonialism and force them [the colonialists] to see whether Israel is beneficial to them or not. If one day, he said, the world of Islam comes to possess the weapons currently in Israel’s possession [meaning nuclear weapons] – on that day this method of global arrogance would come to a dead end. This, he said, is because the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.

You should read the rest of that link. It’s chock-full of classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the lie that Jews were better off as dhimmis in Muslim states than in Israel today.

Oil closed at $64.15 yesterday, up from the $62 mark, but still down far enough to be hurting Iran, regardless of whether they need $75 or $100/bbl pricing. And that’s great news.

Posted in Iran | Tagged | Comments Off on “Moderate” Iranian says: Don’t gloat, guys

Paper stronger than steel

Via Glenn Reynolds, they’re making paper that’s stronger than steel, using nanotechnology.

Rosie O’Donnell says that fire can’t burn it.

Posted in Evil Meryl | 1 Comment

In your face, ayatollahs

We’ve been hearing the enemies of America cheering our financial crisis and calling it a punishment from above (or at least, from their version of above, not mine).

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gloated recently that the United States is paying the price for exporting inflation and deficits to the rest of the world, “Now the world capacity is full and these problems have returned … And finally they are oppressors, and systems based on oppression and unrighteous positions will not endure,” he said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also reveled in the financial crisis, expressing his hope that it marked the end of U.S. domination over the world economy. “The false bubble of money in the West has broken,” he said on state television, adding that the recent mortgage meltdown was the beginning of the end for free market capitalism.

Similarly, Iranian Guardian Council secretary and interim Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati professed that the U.S.’s economic crisis was “divine punishment.” He stated, “we are happy that the United States economy has come across difficulty. They are attesting unfavorable consequences of their conduct.They are experiencing divine punishment. We are happy over that. The unhappier they become, the happier we get, as they become happy as we get unhappy.” He said that Americans could expect to be “slapped in the face by Islam, Muslims, and the Islamic Revolution.”

Yeah, so how’s that “divine punishment” working out for you now, what with the price of crude oil having dropped down as low as $62 and change today? It’s holding steady around $64. What was that break-even point for Iran’s budget again? Oh, yeah. $100/bbl.

So, who’s being punished again? What’s that? I can’t hear you, crazy men.

Sucks to be you, Iran.

Posted in Iran, Juvenile Scorn | Tagged | 2 Comments

Hey, I helped the economy!

Check it out. My condo purchase last month is helping the economy.

Home resales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in September, aided by foreclosure-driven declines in prices that made properties more affordable.

Purchases of existing homes jumped 5.5 percent last month to a 5.18 million annual pace, the highest level in a year, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median price dropped 9 percent.

By the way, for the commenter who felt he had to tell me what a mistake I made in not waiting (while living in The Craphole that I hated) another year or two to buy, well, I’m thinking I was right.

Foreclosure-related sales accounted for 35 percent to 40 percent of last month’s total, the agents’ group said. Of those, about 80 percent were for primary residence, higher than the average of about 75 percent and signaling that investors are not a primary reason for the jump, said Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist.

“In terms of sales, I think we have bottomed out,” Yun said in a press conference. “The first step to housing-market stabilization is rising home sales. Hopefully, this trend can continue.”

Yes, and I’m employing a legion of people and spending money on all sorts of things necessary for my home. Besides hiring a cleaning service once a month (which I did not do in my apartment), I now have a bed in my guestroom and have been shopping for lamps, dishes, end tables, a dining room set—all kinds of things I need for my new home. From putting in a programmable thermostat to buying new blinds to supplying three bathrooms instead of two, I’m a one-woman purchasing storm. Of course, I’m shopping for bargains—I saved hundreds on the bed, and I go to a nearby Wal-Mart, or use the ubiquitous BB&B coupon—but I’m still putting money into our troubled economy.

Of course, if Barack Obama raises my taxes, that will stop the spending spree. Big-time.

Posted in Life | Comments Off on Hey, I helped the economy!

OPEC cut is backfiring on them

This is great news:

Oil options contracts to sell crude at $50 by December almost tripled today after an OPEC decision to slash production failed to allay concerns that the global economic slump is hurting demand.

The cost of the $50 December 2008 put option, which gives the holder the right to sell oil futures at $50 a barrel, rose as much as 142 percent to $1.50 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, compared with 62 cents yesterday, according to exchange data.

“It certainly seems to me that we could get down to $50 a barrel,” Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank’s chief energy economist, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview today. “You could look at the OPEC cut as a sign of weakness, not strength.”

The cost of the option jumped on speculation that an output cut announced today by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil, won’t be enough to stem plunging prices.

Ladies and gentlemen, can we have a little Nelson here, please?

Posted in Evil Meryl, Miscellaneous | Comments Off on OPEC cut is backfiring on them

Samir Kuntar, insomniac

The child-killing POS that Israel traded alive for the corpses of her soldiers is swearing he won’t rest until Israel is destroyed. Get used to not sleeping, asshole.

Three months after being released from an Israeli jail in a prisoner swap, Lebanese terrorist and child-killer Samir Kuntar said he was more than ever committed to working to wipe the Jewish state off the map, AFP reported on Thursday.

“As long as there is something called Israel in this region, the resistance must continue … and I am totally committed to the resistance,” Kuntar, 46, told AFP. “I am ready to take part in any resistance mission.”

Please, please, PLEASE take a position near the IDF and start shooting at them. Please give Israel the chance to do to you today what she should have done thirty years ago, and end your miserable existence.

In the meantime, get used to disappointment.

Posted in Israel, Terrorism | Tagged , | Comments Off on Samir Kuntar, insomniac