Fake Photos

BUSTED! Big time.

Dramatic Images?

Or dramatic photohops? LGF has some very questionable photographs from Reuters that need some very serious explaining. This is very, very interesting.

Via Crosspatch.

Brazilian Paper Reports Castro Has Cancer

Babalu Blog reports on an article that appeared in the Brazilian press that states that Castro has cancer.

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 5 (EFE).- The Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo said Saturday that the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is working with the hypothesis that Cuban President Fidel Castro "is sick" and that the cancer he is suffering could keep him from returning to office.

"Cuban authorities told the president and the Workers Party (PT) that the dictator has cancer and that even if he recovers he might not return to power," the newspaper said without mentioning sources.

"They said that the dictator might be kept from returning to power even though he recovers from the illness, a malignant abdominal tumor, according to the version with which the Brazilian government is working," said the article signed by journalist Kennedy Alencar, Folha de Sao Paulo's correspondent in Brasilia.

"'It looks like we are going to lose our friend,' Lula told an assistant after being informed of the dictator's critical state of health," the article said.

Looks like our super-duper secret agent was right.

New Taste Sensation Sweeping Germany!

Forget those bratwursts. Say no to knackwurst. Above all, don't even think about the lowly American hot dog. The new sensation in Germany?

Cold dogs!

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German woman found a frozen dead dog when she opened the refrigerator freezer compartment in her new apartment in the southwestern town of Trossingen, police said on Saturday.

The previous tenant later told police in the town near Stuttgart that his greyhound pup had died of natural causes several months earlier but he did not have time to give it a proper burial before moving out of the apartment.

Believe it or not, the Germans actually have a law covering the situation. The man will be charged with violating the Tierkoerperbeseitigungsgesetz. Which forbids the production of dogsicles.

Ok, it actually requires removal of dead animals, but it was funnier our way.

Pigs Got Wings

Human Rights Watch has condemned Hezbollah for firing rockets into civilian areas and has outright called them war crimes. I am well aware that they have mentioned Hezbollah's unacceptable actions before, but this is without a doubt the strongest public statement I have ever seen from them that is not directed at the US or Israel.

Hizbullah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

"Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war."

"Most of the attacks appear to have been directed at civilian areas and have hit pedestrians, hospitals, schools, homes and businesses," the humanitarian organization's website stated.

Since July 12, when Hizbullah captured two IDF soldiers and killed eight, Human Rights Watch researchers have been documenting the war's impact on civilians in Israel and Lebanon, interviewing the witnesses and survivors of attacks, as well as doctors, emergency workers, police, military and government officials.

"Hizbullah must stop using the excuse of Israeli misconduct to justify its own," said Roth.

The organization's Web site recognized that northern Israel had come to a virtual standstill because of Hizbullah's rockets, which were "exacting an enormous human and economic toll."

"Under international humanitarian law - also known as the laws of war - parties to an armed conflict must not make the civilian population the object of attack, or fire indiscriminately into civilian areas. Nor can they launch attacks that they know will cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects that exceeds the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. Such attacks constitute war crimes," the site explained.

"Several medical and educational institutes have sustained damage from Katyusha attacks." Human Rights Watch researchers visited hospitals in Nahariya and Safed after they were hit.

At Nahariya Hospital, rockets had been landing near the hospital since July 12, a hospital spokesperson said. "There are no military bases around here; nothing military at all," he said. "I believe they know perfectly well they are firing at a hospital."

"In the absence of troops or military assets inside, hospitals must never be attacked," Human Rights Watch said. "Deliberately attacking them is a war crime."

Please let this be a first step to taking this evil weapon away from terrorists. If the world condemns these terrorists, they will stop these heinous actions.

A Shocking Increase

In the number of deaths caused by lightning in the US this year. 14 people were killed in the last half of the month of July alone, bringing the total for 2006 to 27 in 19 different states. Experts at the National Weather Service are reminding people about the basic number one rule of thunderstorms:

Get inside, stupid.

"In the past two weeks, we've seen an alarming increase in the number of lightning deaths in this country," said John Jensenius, a lightning safety expert with the NOAA National Weather Service. "People are ignoring the common warning signs of thunderstorms or failing to get to a safe place when thunderstorms threaten."

So far this year, lightning has claimed 27 lives in 19 states. Three other deaths in the last two weeks might have been lightning-related but are not in the officials statistics.

Among the lightning deaths this year:

• Four involved teens playing soccer in three separate incidents.
• Three were golf-related.
• Two people were riding lawn mowers.

"Unfortunately, the same fatal mistakes that have been made for centuries are being repeated today," Jensenius said today. "With lightning, there is no safe place outside when a thunderstorm is nearby. If you can hear thunder, you're likely within striking distance of the storm and need to get to a safe place immediately."

In an average year, 66 Americans are killed by lightning and hundreds are injured.

Let's review, shall we? There is no safe place outside when a thunderstorm is nearby. None. Zero. Zip. My kids have been taught to get inside when they hear thunder. Don't wait for the storm to get to you, lightning can strike even when the sky is bright blue directly overhead. It happened in this area a few years ago. The storm was estimated to be several miles away and still killed a couple of kids on a soccer field. It was nice and sunny where they were.

We'd hate to lose a reader, so get inside, would you? I guess I was overly optimistic when I mentioned this once before.

Blue Crab Boulevard Back On Line

There was some sort of problem with the server that the Boulevard uses, taking the Crabitat off line for a little over an hour today. We appear to be back up and running at the moment.

Mexican Court Rejects Recount

The Mexican court that oversees elections has rejected the vote-by-vote recount the loser Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had demanded. The possibility still exists for a partial recount of limited scope and duration. Mexican law does not allow for full recounts except in very limited circumstances, the conditions for which were not met.

In Mexico's central plaza, thousands of protesters watched the court session on a huge screen, chanting "Vote by vote!" and drowning out the judges' statements. Representatives of Lopez Obrador walked out of the session in protest.

Tens of thousands of Lopez Obrador's supporters have camped out in the capital's center for a week, disrupting business and traffic to press their case that their candidate was cheated of victory in the July 2 election and to demand that all the votes be recounted.

In their first public session on the dispute, the seven judges of the Federal Electoral Court left open the possibility that they could order a partial recount. The tribunal has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or annul the elections.

Official tallies gave ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary, an advantage of less than 0.6 percent, or about 240,000 votes, out of more than 41 million cast.

Chief justice Leonel Castillo argued Saturday that Mexico's political parties had a chance to raise concerns and dispute results when the results were first counted July 2 and then again during an official count held the week after the vote.

During an official count, Mexican law allows authorities to open ballot boxes only if there is evidence of irregularities or fraud. Castillo cautioned against straying from the law, saying recounts should be "exclusively and only" when there are obvious problems.

The protesters who are destroying Mexico's economy have vowed to stay in the capitol city until a full recount is held. One has to wonder where the money for these protests is coming. People have to eat. Could Hugo Chavez be helping to fund AMLO's effort?

UPDATE: The BBC: "If there is no solution, there'll be revolution," well, that's not a good sign, is it?

The Last Honest Man

Robert Kagan writes a piece on Joe Lieberman for the Sunday Washington Post. He says much the same thing as I have since I began following this story (for quite some time now).

No, Lieberman's sin is of a different order. Lieberman stands condemned today because he didn't recant. He didn't say he was wrong. He didn't turn on his former allies and condemn them. He didn't claim to be the victim of a hoax. He didn't try to pretend that he never supported the war in the first place. He didn't claim to be led into support for the war by a group of writers and intellectuals whom he can now denounce. He didn't go through a public show of agonizing and phony soul-baring and apologizing in the hopes of resuscitating his reputation, as have some noted "public intellectuals."

These have been the chosen tactics of self-preservation ever since events in Iraq started to go badly and the war became unpopular. Prominent intellectuals, both liberal and conservative, have turned on their friends and allies in an effort to avoid opprobrium for a war they publicly supported. Journalists have turned on their fellow journalists in an effort to make them scapegoats for the whole profession. Politicians have twisted themselves into pretzels to explain away their support for the war or, better still, to blame someone else for persuading them to support it.

Al Gore, the one-time Clinton administration hawk, airbrushed that history from his record. He turned on all those with whom he once agreed about Iraq and about many other foreign policy questions. And for this astonishing reversal he has been applauded by his fellow Democrats and may even get the party's nomination.

As Kagan notes, it is quite discouraging that this kind of recanting of past positions does indeed work for some politicians. If Lieberman had played that game he would never have even been in this primary at all, and Ned Lamont would still be a member of his country club. Because recanting and pretending it never happened works for Ned Lamont. But because Lieberman will not lie to save his own neck, the netroots want his head on a platter.

Joe Lieberman, the last honest man. A fitting name regardless of the outcome of the primary.

See Your Hook And Raise You A Sword

Via TC at Leather Penguin, we have the ultimate fish story. How about going to a fishing tournament only to find out that you're the bait?

When he saw a companion on his boat hook a giant fish during a sea angling contest, Ian Card was delighted.

Next second, the scene of triumph turned to horror - as the 14ft blue marlin leapt out of the water across the vessel and speared Mr Card through the chest with its spiked bill.

The impact of the 800lb fish knocked him overboard into the Atlantic off Bermuda.

Then, with a thrash of its tail and with the 32-year-old still impaled and bleeding profusely, it dragged him underwater.

Terribly injured, he somehow stayed conscious as he struggled to pull himself free of the marlin's 3ft razor-sharp spike before he drowned.

Finally, he wrenched himself away and was rescued by his companions on the boat - who included his 58-year-old father Alan.

Yesterday, he told how his son surfaced with blood pumping from his wound. 'He put his hand up to his chest and his fingers disappeared,' he said. 'He had a wound about as big as your fist.' Mr Card was rushed to hospital, where surgeons carried out an emergency operation and yesterday he was in a stable condition.

But doctors told him that if the marlin's spike had struck a fraction of an inch higher, it would have severed an artery and killed him.

The bizarre accident happened as he and his father took part in an international fishing tournament 15 miles south of Bermuda.

Now, we don't want to be alarmist or anything, but this is a sure sign that the animal uprising is reaching a critical point. It's not news when people go fishing, but it certainly is when fish go peopling. Good thing Mr. Card wasn't water skiing at the time. That would have violated the tournament rules. No trolling allowed.

Fidel Animated!

The Cuban government has made an official announcement that Fidel Castro is "animated".

Castro, who is due to turn 80 next week, "is recuperating favorably" from intestinal surgery, and physically and in terms of his spirits, "he's better than I am," joked Alarcon, 69.

Castro is "stable, recuperating, animated," Alarcon added Saturday.

"Of course, any surgery is a delicate matter, something to be cautious about, but he was not unconscious, nor asleep, nor sedated. He is conversing," Alarcon said, amid persisting speculation that Castro might be dead, fuelled by the fact that he has not been seen publicly since ceding power late Monday.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard would like to take this opportunity to tell the world that the Cuban government is speaking the absolute truth about this. How do we know? Simple, one of our super-duper secret operatives from the Magic 8-Ball Intelligence Service and Strip-O-Gram, Inc. managed to sneak into the secret location Fidel Castro has been in since Monday. He managed to get one picture out to us, but we're not sure what happened to him after that since his satellite connection was lost. So here's the one picture our brave agent got. As you can see, the animation is coming along nicely:

US And France Reach Agreement On UN Resolution

It looks as if time may have run out for Israel to destroy Hezbollah. An agreement has been reached on a draft UN resolution to stop the fighting in Lebanon.

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and France agreed Saturday on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah but would allow Israel to defend itself if attacked, officials said.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and French President Jacques Chirac's office confirmed that agreement had been reached.

Officials with knowledge of the document said the draft calls for a "full cessation" of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, but would allow Israel the right to launch strikes if attacked by Hezbollah.

But it does not call for an "immediate cessation of violence," those officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the draft had not yet been made public.

That appeared to be a victory for the U.S. and Israel. France and many other nations had demanded an immediate halt to violence without conditions as a way to push the region back toward stability.

The French presidential palace in Paris said a deal was reached on a resolution that seeks a total halt to hostilities and would work toward a permanent cease-fire and a long-term solution.

The full 15-nation Security Council was to meet later Saturday to discuss the resolution, and it was likely to be adopted in the next couple of days, Bolton said.

Bolton said the resolution would be the first of two. The second could spell out a larger political framework for peace between Israel and Hezbollah or set the conditions for a peacekeeping force to deploy to Lebanon.

"We're prepared to continue to work tomorrow in order to make progress on the adoption of the resolution but we have reached agreement and we're now ready to proceed," Bolton said. "We're prepared to move as quickly as other members of the council want to move."

The wording appears odd to me. Calling for a full cessation rather than an immediate cessation may actually give Israel leeway to continue to fight for a while longer, since it is highly unlikely Hezbollah will stop attacking.

Looking For A Way Out?

According to this article, University of Wisconsin Provost Patrick Farrell may well be looking for a face-saving way to kick 9/11 conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett to the curb. In a letter obtained by the AP, Farrell warns Barrett about seeking publicity or publicly associating himself with the University.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin's provost warned an instructor who believes the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks to stop seeking publicity for his views, days after he defended the teacher's right to free speech.

UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell also warned Kevin Barrett to stop associating himself with UW-Madison when he advocates his views. Otherwise, Farrell wrote in the July 20 letter, he would reconsider his decision to allow Barrett to teach a course on Islam this fall.

“In summary, if you continue to identify yourself with UW-Madison in your personal political messages or illustrate an inability to control your interest in publicity for your ideas, I would lose confidence … ,'' he wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press in an open records request.

The letter came 10 days after Farrell decided to retain Barrett as a part-time instructor for the fall semester course, “Islam: Religion and Culture,'' despite calls to fire him.

The decision has sparked a major backlash against UW-Madison, with 61 state lawmakers denouncing the move.

The Ozaukee County Board voted Wednesday to cut funding to next year's UW Extension program by $8,247 — the amount Barrett will earn for the course — in a symbolic protest that could spread to other counties.

Announcing his decision on July 10, Farrell declared, “We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas.''

Mike Mikalsen, an aide to Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Farrell's letter “makes a mockery of his earlier statements'' that he was committed to protecting Barrett's ideas and may signal the school is looking for a way to fire him.

“It stuns me they would put that kind of threat in writing because they have set a standard that Barrett's already broken,'' he said, noting Barrett gave an interview on Fox News on Thursday morning. “He has not backed off one iota.''

Farrell said he wanted Barrett to know that he could reconsider his decision if he did not meet expectations. He said Barrett has “modestly made some efforts'' to cut down on publicity.

As I have said all along, this is not an issue of academic freedom or a free speech issue. It is and always has been an employment issue. This letter makes that rather obvious. It may be the easiest way for Farrell to get rid of someone who, frankly, is an embarrassment to UW-M. I had also noted some time ago that Farrell's decision to keep Barrett would bear negative budgetary consequences. That didn't take long to come about, did it?

Side note to the Barretts of the world. Why is it that not one, single, solitary, credible, licensed professional engineer has signed on to your theories? (At least none I've heard of). Not one reputable engineer.

Maybe because the theory is insanity? Just asking.

When The Shoe Is On The Other Foot

For months now, Lamont supporters have done their best to harass Lieberman at every appearance. They have done their best to disrupt events and have posted numerous blog entries and videos to show themselves doing it. But when Lieberman supporters do the same things, Lamont's campaign manager complains. Funny how it works when the shoe is on the other foot, isn't it?

At a construction site on Columbus Boulevard in Hartford Friday, he looked at a knot of 15 construction workers, rattled off a list of labor programs he had supported and quietly asked, "We are one, aren't we?"

Charles LeConche, president of the Greater Hartford-New Britain Building and Construction Trades Council, joined in.

"The seat he sits in is a seat he's worked hard to protect, and he's been there for us," LeConche said, "and now it's time for us to be there for him."

Lieberman quickly picked up the beat. "Bring out members of your union," he said "Bring out your families."

But Lieberman's low-key, one-on-one campaigning belied the intensity of his battle with Lamont, as reflected in several recent appearances by Lieberman supporters at Lamont campaign events. The most recent, Friday night at a rally in Lamont's home town of Greenwich, brought charges of harassment from both camps.

Lamont was greeted by a crowd of about 200 supporters and dozens of Lieberman campaign workers, some of whom followed Lamont and his family to their car.

Tom Swan, Lamont's campaign manager, complained that Lieberman's workers jostled Lamont's supporters and harassed the candidate's family.

"That was nothing but harassment," Swan said.

Swan called Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo and asked her to intervene "before someone gets hurt."

Marion Steinfels, a Lieberman campaign spokeswoman, said the Lieberman workers had stayed within bounds.

"They went to Ned's rally in support of Joe Lieberman," she said. "My understanding was there was no inappropriate behavior."

Steinfels said Lamont's supporters had been harassing Lieberman for months.

The double standards are obvious and frankly make Lamont look silly.

A Familiar Place

Victor Davis Hanson writes on the familiarity of the place we find ourselves as a civilization. How to understand the madness that prevailed in the late 1930's when the world stood at the brink of war and yet would not take the steps that could have averted that cataclysm.

When I used to read about the 1930s — the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China — I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.

Of course, the trauma of the Great War was all too fresh, and the utopian hopes for the League of Nations were not yet dashed. The Great Depression made the thought of rearmament seem absurd. The connivances of Stalin with Hitler — both satanic, yet sometimes in alliance, sometimes not — could confuse political judgments.

But nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (“Their [the Jews’] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government”) or Father Coughlin (“Many people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most — the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.”) — and it is even more baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.

Not any longer.

He goes on from there in his usual, brilliantly written style. The moral bankruptcy of moral relativism. The failure to be able to distinguish between good and evil. The failure of too many people in the West to be able to face reality, substituting their skewed vision and values. Misplaced compassion playing into the hands of those who would kill the compassionate.

Read the whole thing.