Hmm, I Had No Idea Karl Rove Worked For McCain

Someone named Barbara Ferguson authored this dreck for the Arab News, and it's so full of hysteria it almost qualifies to be a Bob Herbert column.

It's a rehash of the MSM nonsense from this past week about John McCain allegedly going "negative" against The Anointed Savior of Earth and how badly it reflects upon him.

In other words, McCain is beating Obama's ass all over the place and the media just can't handle it.

Anyway, an interesting item caught my eye.

His statements about Obama in recent weeks draw parallels to the same sort of dirty attacks engineered for the Bush campaigns by Karl Rove, which might be expected as Rove now works for McCain.

Really? I had no idea. When did the McCain camp announce Rove's hiring? Somehow I missed that and I read the news every day.

Obama’s already faced Rove’s attack strategies in facing Hillary Clinton, and he beat them. He’s not the type of politician that will be easily destroyed by swiftboating, and the more McCain makes comments like the one he made last week, the more Obama will win the argument by looking more presidential, more unifying.

Huh? Was Rove advising Hillary Clinton?

Last I saw, Rove was still employed by Fox News. Of course, that alone is anathema to the left, but it doesn't give them an excuse to just make shit up. Sure, Rove supports McCain, has given him money, and probably some advice, but he's not working for him.

This idiot Ferguson, after whining about "negative" campaigning, then goes back to the one thing Democrats constantly use again McCain: his age.

The other problem dogging McCain is his age. More than a quarter of a century separates John McCain and Barack Obama.

When McCain was taken prisoner in the Vietnam War, his Democratic opponent was just six years old.

McCain will be 72 next January — and if he is elected, he would be the oldest man ever to become US president. And that worries some voters — almost as much as his smear campaign against Obama.

Really? Who's worried about it, other than the left?

And since when is using Obama's own words against him a smear? Was the New York Times calling McCain racist a smear? Was the New York Times hitpiece on McCain alleging he had an affair with a lobbyist a smear?

No, none of that stuff bothers the Barbara Ferguson's of the world.

But poking fun at The Messiah and a media twit reflexively says your smearing the golden boy.

Oh, and it might help if her employers hired a fact-checker. McCain was born August 29, 1936, Obama on August 4, 1961, which is not more than a quarter of a century older.

No doubt the media will be blowing birthday kisses to Obama come Monday.

An Arab lectures an American citizen on the First Amendment

Too good to pass up. This is from the Arab newspaper. it appears that a certain Ms Lin Hansen, wrote in a letter taking the columnist to task for one of his opinion pieces. In part she wrote:

while writing her article, “Fatin Bundagji conveniently forgot, as Arab writers usually do, that the US was attacked by Arab terrorists which led to retaliatory action in the Middle East and out of America. All those glorious outreach programs she was describing that America used to do would still be in effect and there would be no war waging at the moment if the radical Arabs kept their opinions and hatred of American policies in the academic or political arena... the majority of Americans are getting pretty fed up with handling out billions of dollars in aid, education, medical care, technological advancements, and religious tolerance and so on to a world of egocentric ingrates”.

To which I say Bravo!
Well Fatin Bundagji wasn't going to take that kneeling on a prayer rug, and decided to devote a column on lecturing Ms Hansen on the First Amendment. He cites a retired University of CA professor, yes you know where this going,

“All serious and intelligent journalists today know that the US government has massive media management brigades to carefully control what Americans see and, thus, what they are very likely to believe about things of which they have no direct experience, such as high-level politics, finance and foreign affairs. They also know that the government is extremely effective in secretly censoring the news by using devices such as ‘embedded reporting’ in nations like Afghanistan and Iraq which the US government invades, occupies, and governs.

Gee if the government has that much control why is the New York Times still in business after all of the classified information they have chosen to put on the front page and their blatant disdain for the current administration that they exhibit every day.
The main thrust of Fatin's commentary is that our news is controlled by the government in bed with the major news agencies. He (she) tells us to use Google a couple of times. Might I suggest she do the same thing and look up blogger and internet. Or just check out a local jail since many bloggers in that part of the world are there.

Here is something for Condi to talk about the next time she talks to the Saudis

The father of a 16-year-old boy — who was executed last year following his arrest three years ago at the age of 13 in connection with the death of a young boy in Jizan — is seeking justice claiming his son was unjustly killed.

You can just add this to the long list of heinous acts carried out in the kingdom in the name of justice. These are the people who somehow the left in this country tell us have the "high moral ground". The next time some liberal plays the Bush is Hitler card point him to this story.

“I want justice. I will not rest until I get it,” Al-Hakami told Arab News, speaking about his son who was beheaded on July 10 last year. To add to his pain, Al-Hakami only learned that his son had been executed a few days later and till this day does not know where his body is buried.

Arab news for 1/15/2008

Romance in the Arab world.

MAKKAH, 15 January 2008 — A young man was surprised to know that his father is now going to marry the girl he had rejected, the daily Okaz reported yesterday. The problem started when the man, accompanied by his father, went to his neighbour’s house with a marriage proposal. However, after meeting the girl — according to the Shariah, a suitor is allowed to see a girl without her Hijab before proposing marriage — the young man changed his mind, leaving his father in an embarrassing situation. That’s when the father of the suitor decided to step in — he went ahead and proposed to the girl instead of his son. Much to his surprise, the father of the would-be bride readily agreed and a marriage date has now been fixed for next month. In this case, what’s good for the father may not be good for the son. Never mind. It’s all in the family.

Coming to a theater of conflict near you soon.
Saudi releases 1500 more "young men detained on charges of harboring extremist ideologies that threatened the security in the country have been released after counseling"

When hate is all you have....

Here is a cartoon that is on the front page of the Arab News, "The Middle East's Leading English Daily" according to their web site.

Not sure exactly what they are trying to say other then of course that Israel is the reason there is no peace in the Middle East and they have swept some sort of mass murder under the rug. In other words what they can't blame on America they blame on Israel. This is the sort of propaganda that runs daily in the Arab world. When people are bombarded with these types of images day after day, propaganda worthy of anything the Nazi's did leading up to and through World War II, is it any wonder they have such a deep rooted hatred of Israel. One that is not based on facts but rather plays on the emotion of hate.

Why can't our State Department instead of cowing down to these governments, made famous by Nancy Pelosi wearing a scarf while meeting the murdering ophthalmologist in Syria, bring matters such as this up? I constantly hear from the left, when referring to the Bush administration, that they want investigations and they want to shine a spotlight on whatever the perceived outrage of the day happens to be, but they never, ever want to draw attention to this sort of stuff.

This is not from some wacky Palestinian program or some video clip hosted on Memri. No, this is on the front page of one of the main English language newspapers.

Arab news and more

I seem to be running across this guy from time to time while researching other stories. That somebody is Piers Morgan. Somebody I have written about before.
I was reading the Arab News online and I found a story in which Mr Morgan is highlighted. At first when I saw the name with this description

Piers Morgan, former editor of the UK’s Daily Mirror, gave the keynote address at the Arabian Business Media and Marketing Conference in Dubai last month. He criticized media outlets in the region when he expressed his concerns over the absence of competitiveness that he expected to be present here.

So I went looking and here is what I found. To say Mr Morgan is an interesting fellow is an understatment. I was shocked to read this

He had previously decided to change the Mirror's focus to serious news after the 11 September attacks, reflected by the paper's broadsheet-style front page on 12 September, 2001.

The Mirror took a strong anti-war stance in the approach to the war in Iraq and won the Newspaper of the Year Award 2001.

Mr Morgan lost his job at the Mirror over an incident whereby he published some pictures allegedly showing British soldiers abusing an Iraqi. The photos were fake. Gee where have we heard something like that before.
In light of how this fellow first came to my attention this was surprising. It doesn't change my first praise of his reasons for participating in Donald Trumps show and the charity he is representing, but it certainly adds a lot to profile of this man.

Oh yeah and the original story I was looking into when I got side tracked was this.

2,200 Palestinian Pilgrims Stranded at Aqaba
Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Arab News

AMMAN, 29 December 2007 — More than 2,200 Palestinian pilgrims, mostly affiliated with the Hamas group, were yesterday stranded at Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba after the Egyptian authorities insisted that they pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing point to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian and Jordanian source said.

Wah Wah Wah. Do we hear any outcry about the Egyptians refusing to open the border crossing at Rafah, which these pilgrims want to use and which Egypt shut down after Hamas took control? Of course not. Border controls are fine everywhere but in America and Israel.