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Reutergate, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust the Terrorists

What a wild and woolly weekend it was for the blogosphere! Much like the days of Rathergate, except this time, the clueless target is al-Reuters rather than CBS. Here's what happened over the weekends-at least on the blogs that I read:

1. It all began with this post by Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs (affectionately known as LGF in the blogosphere) on Saturday, August 5th, 2006. Charles begins his post with: "OK, now things are getting weird." In this post he posts the offending, fake Reuters photo that has been obviously doctored. The smoke has obviously doctored, anyone can see the repeating patterns in the smoke. And as Charles also mentions, unbelievably, some of the buildings in the picture have been duplicated with Photoshop. (This is done in Photoshop with the clone stamp tool.) Johnson identifies the photographer as Adnan Hajj. Mr. Johnson has had his life threatened by an email message sent from an al-Reuters email address.
2. Ace, at Ace of Spades Headquarters, jumps in with this post titled, Mr. Hajj, Meet Mr. Green Helmet. He backs off from declaring the photo faked. Then a little while later, he posts here, titled Big Update: The Original of that Doctored Photo?. He's guessing that someone will end up getting fired from all this: "Find that photo, and someone's getting fired. And then there's going to have to be a serious internal investigation by Reuters. And then the MSM is going to have re-examine its foreign stringer 'journalist' corps."
3. At about 7 PM that day, Curt at Flopping Aces posts and links to the LGF post. Curt notes, as did Charles Johnson, that Adnan Hajj was involved with the Drive By Media (MSM) coverage of the Qana bombing-which he also notes was a terrorist setup. He mentions the man who is now known in the blogosphere as the Green Helmet Guy and is the local mortician that was photographed with all the dead children. Green Helmet Guy does seem to pop up all over the place. Curt writes: "All in all, just another day with the biased MSM trying to make news rather then cover the news.  Pathetic and sad." This post has great images that clearly demonstrate the fake photos that al-Reuters has been passing off as legitimate journalistic photos. He has several examples of more Adnan Hajj photos that have most likely been doctored.
4. 2:05 AM, Ace links to the Small Dead Animals post naming the scandal-Reutergate!
5. Ace beats Powerline's post (below) declaring that yes, al-Reuters admits that the photo was doctored. Ace notices: "Even I can see the very suspicious 'clonings' of picture elements here. And I'm an idiot." And: "It's not just this one picture. It is the MSM's "outsourcing" of most foreign news coverage to low-paid, low-experience, low-credentials, foreign "local" stringers who almost certainly have a very strong personal interest in 1) juicing their stories and pictures to make sure they sell and 2) advancing a political goal of slandering Israel that most Muslims, sadly, seem to share."
6. Now fast forward to Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at about 7 AM. Powerline's post informs us that al-Reuters has admitted that the photo was doctored and they post al-Reuters' advisory. A Powerline reader asks: "The key questions: What else has been faked? What else has been manipulated? Who are the people hired by Western news agencies to report from Lebanon? What are their backgrounds? It's time to look even more carefully at Qana."
7. Thomas Lifson, editor at The American Thinker, says: "Stop the Pixels!" He rightly praises Charles Johnson at LGF for finding a way to clearly demonstrate the fraud. Lifson notes: "We live in two different worlds, as the old pop song had it. One world employs local stringers who may well either be under the thumb of Hezbollah, Hamas, or other villainous groups, or who are outright partisans. But they claim to be objective. The other world, that of internet journalists, acknowledges upfront their political perspectives, and goes after the truth, unafraid to raise and answer questions in a continuing inquiry...The other world, or course, is that of internet journalism. As we saw in the Rathergate memos, serious inquiry into media manipulation of public opinion takes place first on the internet, where questions are asked, facts are dug up, analyses tested, and conclusions gradually strengthened as the evidence warrants. It is an interactive and collective inquiry. Adopting the language of the Japanese philosopher and entrepreneur Konnosuke Matsushita, I call this powerful intellectual process, 'The wisdom of the many.'" In an update to this post, Mr. Lifson quotes another blogger who has found a 2004 complaint against Adnan Hajj.
8. Next up is Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters. His post titled, "What You Need To Know About Diplomacy And Journalism In War" is important because it explains clearly the double standard against Jews that is employed by the Drive Media (MSM) and diplomats.
9. Back now to Charles Johnson at LGF. In this post he notes the unbelievably lame excuse that al-Reuters uses as an "explanation of why Adnan Hajj concocted an entirely faked photograph of a nonexistent Beirut." al-Reuters doesn't blame themselves for this outrage, but rather that Hajj was just trying to remove dust marks-in other words he was just trying to be a responsible photographer (eye roll).
10. The Green Helmet Guy makes another appearance in this post, this time in Tyre doing what he seems to spend a lot of time doing, "making sure wire service photographers get close-up pictures of dead bodies."
11. Rusty Shackleford finds another faked Adnan Hajj photo (HT: LGF).
12. Michelle Malkin, as she usually does, posts a superb set of links along with a spot on cartoon.
13. Kim at Wizbang notes that al-Reuters has fired the photographer, Adnan Hajj.
14. Rush Limbaugh, on his Monday radio show's opening monologue, describes how the evidence against al-Reuters is absolutely devastating. Rush says he thinks this is serious because Americans tend to believe big media. The media has clearly chosen sides with Hezbollah.
15. This story goes on and on in the blogosphere. For more, keep checking Little Green Footballs (you may have to keep checking back with LGF as that blog has, no surprise, gotten lots and lots of traffic in the last couple of days), Ace of Spades Headquarters, Michelle Malkin and Flopping Aces.

UPDATE: Via Ace-al-Reuters has pulled all 920 Adnan Hajj photos: "Reuters' global picture editor said there was "no graver breach" than the deliberate alteration of pictures. If that's the case -- why wasn't he more vigilant about patrolling for this gravest of all breaches? Even an idiot, as I said, could see that pic was altered. Does Reuters' global editor not even rise to the level of idoicy?"

UPDATE II: A blog for all notes (via Dan Riehl) that Adnan Hajj has another day job: "He's found Hajj's other job via a CSM report. He's an economic editor for the daily newspaper As-Safir. So, on top of producing photo edited works that exaggerate or distort the situation in Lebanon, he's also editing a Lebanese paper and quite likely overstating the effects of the Israeli campaign against Hizbullah as well as providing an additional outlet for his photographic business..."

UPDATE III: Michelle Malkin says that Reuters shouldn't pull the 920 Adnan Hajj photos, rather they should post them all so the bloggers can analyze them all and find out which ones were faked with Photoshop.

vadkins
QT Monster Blog Home

More on the Israeli/Hezbollah War

From the blogosphere today:

The Saudi's bust up a pro-Shiite/Hezbollah rally.

Intelligence Summit lists the latest battles of the war.

From Captain's Quarter's is an analysis of the Israeli attack on the port of Tyre: "While zealots may fight with surprising tenacity and insane levels of self-sacrifice, they cannot conduct complicated operations such as these raids, and therefore have little hope of ever beating Israel militarily. That, plus the advantage of Israeli air supremacy, puts Hezbollah at a serious disadvantage in open war..." And it seems that the Hezzbollah terrorists are having several Baghdad Bob moments lately.

This Powerline post has more on the traveling mortician of Qana. A Powerline reader spotted the same guy on Fox News at Tyre this morning. Also in this post, a quote from YnetNews.com about the lying misleading (and that's putting it charitably) Drive By Media (MSM): "As usual, most of the international media are doing a cover-up job on what was a heroic Israeli commando raid into the heart of the Hizbollah centre in the coastal town of Tyre in Lebanon. According to CNN and Sky reports Israel tried to land a couple of helicopters full of soldiers but were driven off by determined Hizbollah fire, leaving many Israeli soldiers wounded and one dead...The actual event was that elite Israeli commandos stormed a building in the Hizbollah stronghold of central Tyre. The building was the command and control centre that directed the fire of long range missiles into Israel, including the rocket that hit Hadera on Friday night. During the raid, the Israelis killed senior Hizbollah commanders and left with important intelligence material...Doesn't this sound a little different from what you were told about this event by your CNN, BBC, and Sky reporters?"

Michael Barone notes on his blog, that more Republicans than Democrats support Israel (HT: Powerline).

My comment? Go Israel, GO!!!!!!

UPDATE: more important blog posts-

Atlas links to a 1968 editorial, written "the brilliant marketing tool of the imaginary "Palestinians" came into vogue". Pamela, AKA Atlas, notes: "And we here  are 40 years later and the holocaust may very well be upon us."

Victor Davis Hanson has an important piece in the Washington Times today, It's Not Just About Land: "The answer boils down to Islamists feeling their reputation is at stake. Words like "honor" and "pride" are evoked-- in the sense they need to be regained -- by every insecure radical in the Islamic world, from al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden to Hezbollah's Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Fist-shaking crowds, fiery mullahs and terrorists all boast of not giving an inch to infidels, and restoring the now sullied honor of the Islamic people. Why their hurt? For about the last half-century, globalization has bypassed most of the recalcitrant Middle East -- economically, socially and politically. So there are now few inventions and little science emanating from the Islamic world -- but a great deal of poverty, tyranny and violence. And rather than make the necessary structural changes that might end cultural impediments to progress and modernity -- such as tribalism, patriarchy, gender apartheid, polygamy, autocracy, statism and fundamentalism -- too many Middle Easterners have preferred to embrace the reactionary past and the cult of victimization..." (HT: LGF).

And on the disgusting Drive By Media (MSM) front, LGF links to an article in New York Magazine declaring that Israel is a mistake.

vadkins
QT Monster Blog Home

Israel, Our Canary in the Mine of Terrorism

Founts of wisdom and insight in the blogosphere today:

Victor Davis Hanson notes the parallels to the 1930's.

Israel continues to hit targets in Lebanon so Hezbollah is cut off from Syria-via Daniel Freedman's excellent blog, It Shines for All, at the New York Sun newspaper.

Again, from It Shines for All, is Hezbollah planning to attack America?

Ed Morrissey notes the irony of German troops protecting Israel's northern border.

From Instapundit: Iran will continue to supply Hezbollah with rockets.

Powerline notes that this Israeli/Hezbollah war is not about territory, but rather, Jihad.

Here is the New York Post's account if Israel's Baalbed raid in the Bekaa Valley-here is the video (HT: Powerline).

Today I added two new categories to this blog: Israel and Victor Davis Hanson.

UPDATE: Don't miss OpFor's post, "This is the IDF’s Plan Unfolding".

vadkins
QT Monster Blog Home

Get the IRS out of your life

On Oct 26th, Senators DeMint (R-SC) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sponsored a bill, S. 1921, the "8.5% Tax Reform Plan" which will eliminate all income taxes and replace them with a tax on new goods and services.  DeMint and Graham had this to say in a press release:

    “Our tax code is the number one job killer in America, and it must be replaced,” said Senator DeMint. “The 8.5% tax reform plan would pull the IRS tax code out by its roots and replace it with a system that is simple, fair, and revenue-neutral. It protects the poor, encourages savings and investment, and levels the playing field for U.S. manufacturers and exporters. This plan would ensure that every American is treated the same and that every business is given a chance to compete in a global economy,” said Senator DeMint.   

    “Fundamental tax reform is long overdue,” said Senator Graham. “If we want to prosper in the 21st Century global economy, we must reform our outdated tax system. The proposal sponsored by Senator DeMint represents a fairer and simpler method of collecting taxes. As a nation, it would make us more competitive in the global economy. Reform of our tax system is a debate our nation needs to have sooner rather than later.”

The tax reform bill:
   1)  Replaces Individual Income Taxes with an 8.5% Sales Tax
   2)  Replaces Corporate Income Taxes with an 8.5% Business Transfer Tax
   3)  Provides Poverty Protections
   4)  Helps Low-Income Americans Prosper
See the press release for more details.

It's time to get the abusive and intrusive IRS out of our lives. Just imagine how our economy could prosper if we shifted the money currently used for tax compliance to something productive. If you agree this is the way to go, please support Senators DeMint and Graham anyway you can.  Email your friends, email your representatives, write letters to the editor etc. If "We the People" get behind this, I believe we can make it happen.

Linda Liberty
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Bring It In, Part II

In my previous post, "Ok, We Brought It In, Now What?", Rep Tom DeLay was desparately searching the federal government for places to cut spending. Here are a few more suggestions from a Heritage Foundation report, " Federal Spending -- By The Numbers". If you like charts, check out this report. You will be awed and shocked by the federal spending that is going on.

Nowhere To Cut?

• The federal government cannot account for $24.5 billion spent in 2003.
• Federal auditors are currently examining all federal programs. Thus far, 38% of all examined programs have failed to show any positive impact on the populations they serve. Yet lawmakers appropriated $154 billion to these programs in FY 2004.
• The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” book identifying $140 billion in potential spending cuts.
• The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.
• The federal government spends $23 billion annually on special interest pork projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or funds to combat teenage “goth” culture in Blue Springs, Missouri.
• Washington spends tens of billions of dollars on failed and outdated programs such as the Rural Utilities Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Economic Development Association.
• The federal government made at least $20 billion in overpayments in 2001. Current estimates are between $40 billion and $100 billion in annual overpayments.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $3.3 billion in overpayments in 2001 accounted for over 10% of the department’s total budget.
• Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.
• Examples of wasteful duplication include: 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 federal programs dedicated to assuring safe water.
• The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses, and 40% of this goes to Fortune 500 companies.
• The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually to not farm their land.
• Washington spends $60 billion annually on corporate welfare, versus $43 billion on homeland security.
• The Department of Agriculture spends $12 billion to $30 billion annually on farm subsidies, the vast majority of which go to agribusinesses and farmers averaging $135,000 in annual income.
• Massive farm subsidies also go to several members of Congress, and celebrity “hobby farmers” such as David Rockefeller, Ted Turner, Scottie Pippen, and former Enron CEO Ken Lay.
• Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.
• The Army Corps of Engineers has been accused of illegally manipulating data to justify expensive but unnecessary public works projects.
• Food stamp overpayments cost $600 million annually.
• School lunch program abuse costs $120 million annually.
• Veterans’ program overpayments cost $800 million annually.
• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) overpayments cost $9 billion annually.
• Better tracking of student loan recipients would save $1 billion annually.
• Preventing states from using accounting tricks to secure additional Medicaid funds would save several billion dollars annually.
• Medicare contractors owe the federal government $7 billion.

Linda Liberty
QT Monster Blog Home

Are Republicans the Taxpayer's Friend?

I'm very discouraged by the Republican controlled legislative and executive branchs. It appears the Republicans never really wanted to reduce spending, they just didn't want to spend taxpayer money on what the Democrats wanted to spend it on. It appears the only difference between the Republicans and Democrats is merely which programs to spend taxpayer money on. Here is a great report "Federal Spending: By the Numbers" from the Heritage Foundation that shows in charts better than words can express what has happened to federal spending since the Republicans have had complete control.

But, there are always some bright lights in the darkness, Congressman Mike Pence from Indiana being one. He is head of the Republican Spending Committee (Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Jeff Flake of Arizona are also members) that suggested that spending cuts be used to offset the spending that will be needed for Katrina. Initally, their suggestion was met by derision and reports are that Pence was taken to the woodshed by the Republican leadership, but all of a sudden things started turning around and even President Bush has started talking about looking for spending cuts. Rebecca Hagelin has a good article today about his struggle. Hopefully, the Republican Party will be looking at people like him to run for President in 2008. If not, they deserve to lose because they are no longer the party of limited government, they are the party of drunken sailors or the DSP - Drunken Sailor Party.

Linda Liberty
QT Monster Blog Home

Does the US need Farm Subsidies (or What Would You Do With $170 Billion?)

Does the US need to spend $170 billion on farm subsidies? Would we really not eat as Bush suggests?  ("This nation has got to eat," President Bush said in a recent speech supporting the $170 billion farm subsidy bill pending before Congress.) New Zealand has greatly reduced the size of their government and farm subsidies was one area. It was a resounding success. For more info see  Save the Farms -- End the Subsidies.

For a fascinating look at how government can be reduced check out this article about New Zealand Rolling Back Government: Lessons from New Zealand. For instance, after they were through with their reforms the Dept of Transportation went from 5,600 employees to 53!

Linda Liberty
QT Monster Blog Home

OK, We Brought It In, Now What?

Tom DeLay declared, in maybe the most preposterous statement of the century, that there is nowhere in the budget that cuts can be made, but if anyone can find them, "bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it."  Well, Stephen Slivinski,  director of budget studies at Cato and Chris Edwards, director of tax studies at Cato and author of Downsizing the Federal Government, forthcoming in November have come up with $62 billion worth of cuts that will not only offset the current budget but will reduce future budgets. Let's see what DeLay will do now. Here they are:

Proposed Budget Cuts to Offset Katrina Spending
Annual Savings in $billions
Program	Savings	Rationale
Farm subsidies	$21.1	"Wasteful, environmentally harmful, and damaging to world trade"
NASA: cut budget in half	$7.9	NASA is obsolete with the arrival of private manned space flight
Energy research and subsidies	$6.2	Private sector responsibility
Subsidies for airports/air traffic control	$5.8	Should be privatized as in other countries
Community development grants	$5.4	Projects such as parking lots and sidewalks are a local responsibility
USAID (foreign aid)	$4.7	Duplicates the Bush Millennium Challenge Corporation foreign aid agency
Foreign economic aid	$2.7	Foreign economic aid does not work
Rural subsidies	$2.5	Wasteful and unfair to urban taxpayers
Bureau of Indian Affairs	$2.4	"Tribes earn $19 billion annually from gambling, and don't need taxpayer support"
Davis-Bacon Act: repeal	$2.0	Repeal Davis-Bacon and the Service Contract Act to cut federal contracting costs
Trade adjustment assistance	$1.0	Unneeded giveaway that is in addition to unemployment insurance
Amtrak	$0.4	"Passenger rail should be privatized, as in other countries"
Total	$62.0
Source: Chris Edwards and Stephen Slivinski, Cato Institute, based on Budget of the U.S. Government, FY2006.

To view the entire story go here: Offsets

Linda Liberty
QT Monster Blog Home

Wretchard: Osama bin Laden. The Uncomprehending Vanguard of America

Belmont Club has a fascinating post today postulating that bin Laden's 9-11 attacks on America has resulted in the US becoming a global power:

Just as mobility through the application of maritime technology was the foundation of Britain's seapower, so is America's based on the ability to freely traverse the oceans -- and now the great land spaces -- of the world. Not by itself, but in consequence: by threatening the areas of weakest governance, organizations like Al Qaeda have driven those beleaguered states into the arms of the only power with means and mobility to come to their assistance. It would be the supreme irony if radical Islam's lasting contribution to history turned out to be the establishment of a global American power. Without the rise of radical Islamism and the collapse of Soviet authority in Central Asia, there would have been no case for a US presence.

Wrerchard's entire post is required reading-if you want to be informed that is.

vadkins
QT Monster Blog Home

All The News That's Fit to Read: President Bush's Speech

Does anyone believe the MSM anymore, about anything? The liberal punditry has been ranting nonstop, saying that the President's speech was Bush's attempt to retool/redefine his reasons for invading Iraq. But wait - they are wrong again! Before the invasion of Iraq the Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism wrote that one argument for the war was that removing Saddam would change the Middle East for the better. Mark Steyn thinks that Iraq will wane as a domestic issue in American politics because the Iraqi's are doing more and more of the actual fighting. Lileks wonders how the liberals/Democrats can explain the fact that Clinton's Justice Department alleged that al Qaeda and Saddam had agreed to work together on weapons development. And as Rush Limbaugh detailed on his radio show today, Andrew McCarthy at National Review has itemized the many, many connections between Iraq and alQaeda.

vadkins
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