Yet Another

Preemptive post mortem, this one from EJ Dionne in the Washington Post. Dionne explains all we ever need to know about the primary in Connecticut. (Close sarcasm tag)

This charge of extremism enrages Democrats, including many Lieberman supporters. It's absurd, they say, to attribute Lamont's rise primarily to bloggers who were his prime supporters three months ago, when he registered less than 20 percent in the polls. Something has happened since then that goes well beyond the blogosphere.

In this light, the effort to play the anti-American card can be seen as a sign of the frustration felt by the architects of a war that no longer enjoys popular support and the desperation of those who realize how pervasive the anti-Bush mood has become.

The battle of interpretations has raged within the Lieberman campaign itself. For months, Lieberman tried to push the war aside, insisting that the election should not be decided by a "single issue." He focused on classic incumbent arguments about his role in bringing jobs to Connecticut, and on criticisms of Lamont.

But on Sunday night — pressed by campaign advisers to speak directly to Democratic anger at the president — Lieberman finally threw in his lot with the anti-Bush camp. He offered a "closing argument" that ticked off eight issues on which he had battled the administration. He defended dissenters opposed to the war whom he had once seemed to criticize and insisted that he "clearly disagreed with and criticized the president" on many aspects of Bush's Iraq policy.

Lieberman has never been, since I've been following his battle, a rubber stamp guy for Bush. I know that's how Lamont and the netroots have painted him, but he's actually been a strong defense person and an opponent to a cut and run policy that would cripple this country. But Dionne jumps happily on that bandwagon. Here's the absurdity Dionne comes up with:

There is, in any event, a major flaw in the claim that Lieberman's troubles reflect an end to the role of moderates in the Democratic Party: Lieberman is the one prominent moderate to receive serious opposition in this year's primaries. As Robert L. Borosage of the liberal Campaign for America's Future noted, antiwar Democrats limited their challenge to one of the most pro-Bush Democrats in one of the most Democratic states in the country. Moderate Democrats in Republican-leaning states were left largely undisturbed.

Moreover, opposition to the war in Iraq and to Bush has spread well beyond the left. In the latest Quinnipiac poll, Lieberman leads Lamont among Democrats who called themselves moderate or conservative by only 53 percent to 43 percent. If Lieberman loses, it will be primarily because of defections in the disaffected center.

Only ten points? Is that all? Lamont supporters were freaking dancing in the streets when the prior poll showed Lamont ahead by ten or so points. Just so I can get this clear, Dionne thinks this is insignificant? 10 points doesn't matter?

Dionne is wrong here. Moderates are not happy with the tilt left and this poll, which is likely skewed left in sample, if other polls are an example, shows the problem is even worse than even I thought. A Lamont win will be a disaster for the Democrats. Too bad Dionne has blinders on in this.

Blogging For Big Bucks

Far be it from us here at the Crabitat to scoff at the Huffington Post's reported $5 million infusion of investment capital. We'd merely like to point out to potential extremely well-heeled investors that we work cheaper.

A lot cheaper. (Not that we don't think our brilliant, scintillating writing is worth less than HuffPo's unpaid blog-help. We'd simply not be real adverse to getting a bit of cash for doing this. Even if it's a bit less than HuffPo gets.)

So do leave a message about investing. We'll get back to you. Probably before you're finished typing the email.

Hacking Websites

I've noted before that the only websites that seem to get hacked are right or right of center. I have not heard - even once - of a lefty site getting hacked or hit with a DDOS attack. Well, someone has apparently decided to hack and disable Joe Lieberman's site.

Did Lamont's campaign do it? Extremely unlikely unless Ned and his campaign staff are dumber than rocks. Did someone on the left thinking this was a legitimate tool do it? You decide.

I suspect it is so.

I also suspect it will backfire in a spectacular fashion in the long run. People don't like this kind of tactic. It will reflect badly on Lamont even though he probably (one hopes) would decry the tactic of silencing one's opposition.

Reuters Needs Some Help

Reinforcing the call he made on Sunday, Thomas Lifson from Real Clear Politics has again called for an independent outside review of Reuters. They need to call for this themselves to retain their credibility.

Reuters has been caught red-handed peddling to the world's media a fake Photoshopped picture exaggerating the damage done to Beirut by an Israeli air strike. And according to experts and casual observers alike, it is a crude job, not in the least bit artful in its attempted deception. Charles Johnson of the website Little Green Footballs first raised the alarm over what appeared to be an obvious fake, and the internet community of bloggers and experts took over, rapidly demonstrating beyond any doubt that the photographer credited with the picture, one Adnan Hajj, had cloned smoke and buildings (to make the district attacked look more built-up, apparently) and exaggerated considerably the extent of the aftermath.

Humiliatingly, Reuters issued a "Picture Kill" notice to its clients, and later published a notice that it would no longer accept photos from Mr. Hajj. But Reuters expressed its finding that only one photograph was problematic.

Of course, we know that Reuters has since magically discovered that two of Mr. Hajj's photos were altered and has pulled all of his work. Too little, too late. Those propaganda images are out there and will be around for years to come. They are most definitely propaganda, too. Reuters can try to spin this however they want, but the fact is they are accomplices in the intentional spread of propaganda photos for Hezbollah.

But Reuters is not a purely innocent victim of a rogue photographer. Hajj's handiwork should have been discovered by any competent photo editor. Consider this: Power Line has published examples of two photos sent to the world's media showing the same building in Beirut in ruins. One of the photos says it is evidence of an attack on July 24th, and the other photo says it is evidence of an Israeli attack on August 5th.

It should have been easy for any photo editor with two functioning eyeballs to detect the summer rerun of the photo. A very distinctive building with a multi-story geometric pattern on its wall stands adjacent to the wreckage and was clearly visible in both photos. There is no other word than "negligence" to describe this kind of editing. The only reasonable alternative is "complicity."

Since the alleged indiscriminate and widespread bombing of Beirut is a cardinal propaganda theme of Hiz b'allah and its allies, repetitive use of the same photo as evidence of multiple attacks makes Reuters an ally of the terror group, fighting the information war on its behalf.

Experts in the field of public relations counsel getting on top of a problem when an organization is in a damage control situation. Staying ahead of your critics by quickly investigating and revealing the entire extent of the problem is the only way to go. Reuters has violated this well-accepted principle by refusing to admit that it has a serious problem with its photo editing.

The only way they can save their reputation at this point is to take a very, very hard look at themselves. If they think just stonewalling will help, they are mistaken. Bloggers have been hard on them before they had proof this obvious of how biased Reuters has become. Now they have the Holy Grail of proof that Reuters has a problem. They will never let Reuters off the hook unless and until they do something drastic to fix their problem.

Otherwise, this is where they are heading.

Archaeology From Space

Archeology gets an assist from imagery taken by spy satellites in the 1960's and declassified in the 1990's. The old images are helping modern archaeologists find ancient ruins in Syria.

The sites are near the ancient fortress of Jebel Khalid, which was established in the wake of conquest of Western Asia by Alexander the Great in the third century BC.

Work led by Ph.D. student Mandy Mottram of the Australian National University uncovered early Islamic pottery factories, mounds of artifacts from 130,000 years ago, and a hilltop complex of megalithic tombs in Euphrates River valley, northeast of the Syrian city Aleppo.

The tombs are similar to chambers of stone called dolmens that are found in Europe.

"The dolmen site in particular is a significant find, because in other parts of the Middle East these structures are usually associated with Bronze Age pastoral peoples,” Mottram said. "Nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists [shepherds] leave very few archaeological marks, so the find will help us to understand the interplay between pastoralists and farmers at that time."

The imagery comes from the US CORONA program. In some ways it is more useful than modern images because it predates modern human activities in some of the areas. There are limits to it's usefulness, though. Images only exist for areas that were of strategic interest to the US at the time. The entire globe was not mapped. Here's an example of the images they are using. Here is a description of the CORONA program, which used actual film canisters returned to earth from the satellites. Copies of the images are supposed to be housed here in the National Archives, but I did not go rooting around for them.

Fan

DeLay Remains On Ballot

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia turned down without comment an appeal by Texas Republicans to allow Tom DeLay to be replaced on the ballot. The attorney who argued the case for the Republicans had one comment after the decision was handed down:

"Be careful what you ask for."

I mentioned this once before, but it would be very funny indeed if DeLay were to win, wouldn't it? Well, not for the Democrats, but it would be in an absolute sense.

Dinner Theater

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard pride ourselves on our timely, calm and rational reporting of the ongoing animal uprising. Because we are so calm and rational about these things, of course. So now we calmly tell you that if you're planning on attending any outdoor Shakespeare performances, change you plans.

Or the bears will eat you.

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - A bear with better taste than his, or her cousins, dined last week on salmon, tri-tip and cherry ice cream — all in the deserted food court at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor.

The choices of surf and turf — and the bard — were more discriminating than the bear that settled last month for cold pizza and an even colder beer it found in a convertible near the south shore casino area.

The foray also was more successful than the bear that wandered into a delivery area last week at MontBleu Casino Resort & Spa on the south shore, but left empty-pawed.

Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist Carl Lackey was called to the scene and left one of his bear traps, but wasn't real optimistic.

"I put old doughnuts in the trap and he just seems to walk by it and head for the refrigerators in the food court," Lackey said. "I mean, why eat day-old doughnuts when you can get salmon?"

Lackey said that while the food vendors have locks on the coolers, "They're just bike locks and the bears are strong enough just flick them off."

Catherine Atack, director of the annual festival, said that having a bear come for dinner is a first.

"Nothing like this has happened before and this year, all four of our food vendors have been hit," Atack said. "We even had one bear appear during the show and the audience was told to stay seated until he was chased away."

Please note we have brought you timely reporting on all the above mentioned bear escapades, too. Damn we're good. We are not planning on going to any outdoor performances unless we're packing heat. There's unbearable danger these days.

All Time Stupidest Theft Attempt

In what has got to be the dumbest move by a thief I think I have ever heard of, a man decided to steal the one thing that would be sure to get an instant response from the police. Seconds after the theft, cops were swarming the area on the lookout for the stolen truck.

The stolen donut truck.

RICHLAND, Wash. - A stolen truck full of doughnuts? Better believe Tri-Cities police were on that in a hurry. Moments after the theft of the Viera's Bakery van was reported early Friday in Kennewick, police issued an all-points bulletin.

A Benton County sheriff's deputy quickly spotted the truck. After a chase at 30 to 35 mph, Richland police got it to stop and arrested the driver, Steve Swoboda, 19, for investigation of auto theft and felony escape.

Still intact was the entire load of glazed, sugar and cream doughnuts, as well as apple fritters, bear claws.

"In 24 years in law enforcement I've never had a call like that," Richland police Capt. Randy Barnes said. "To steal a bakery truck, how clever is that?"

"It kind of sticks out, a doughnut truck," Kennewick police Sgt. Ken Lattin said.

Do not try to come between the cops and their donuts.

Hezbollah UAV Shot Down

The Israeli Air Force shot down a Hezbollah Unmanned Aerial Vehicle as it approached Haifa. The intent of the vehicle is not known. The aircraft is manufactured in Iran.

F-16 fighter jets shot down a Hizbullah Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Monday night 10 kilometers off the coast of Acre. A high-ranking IAF officer said that it was possible that the UAV was loaded with explosives and was on its way to crash into a sensitive installation in northern Israel.

The officer said that the IAF did not spot the UAV at takeoff but did discover it flying over Lebanon. The decision to shoot it down however came after the UAV had reached a 10-km point off the coast of Acre. F-16 jets were scrambled to the air and shot down the aircraft. Navy ships collected the remains of the aircraft found floating in the Mediterranean.

The officer said that it was possible that the UAV was sent over to conduct surveillance for the Hizbullah which has flown two UAVs over northern Israel twice in the past two years.

"It could be that the UAV was packed with explosives," the officer said. "It is also possible that the UAV was launched to send a message of Hizbullah's capabilities."

Iran is showing it's hand more and more in the past few days.

Manatee Madness

The ongoing animal uprising has a whole new player. An advance scout from the manatee invasion force has been spotted heading up the Hudson River in New York. Worse yet, it appears to be checking out Ichabod Crane's old stomping grounds in Sleepy Hollow!

The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week — first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then to the north in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.

"It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth."

John Vargo, the publisher of Boating on the Hudson magazine, said his alert about the sightings was met with disbelief by some boaters.

"Some were laughing about it, because it couldn't possibly be true," he said.

It is unusual for one of the creatures — often associated with the warm waters of Florida — to travel so far north, although they have been reported along the shores of Long Island and even Rhode Island.

Oh sure, people laugh. Just wait until people find out that the manatees have been playing gentle and stupid all these years. When they start eating swimmers people will pay attention! Man munching manatees are nothing to laugh about.

Rumors And Hints

A Cuban official stated publicly that Cuba had set in motion an "peaceful succession". That is the first time the word succession has been used to my knowledge. That implies that Fidel is not going to return to power.

A leading intellectual and Cuban government member said the country had set in motion a "peaceful succession" — the first official to use the word succession. It was not clear whether his use of the term implied that Castro's handover of power to his brother Raul will turn out to be permanent.

Fidel Castro remained convalescing out of sight on Monday, one week after surgery for internal bleeding forced him to put Raul Castro provisionally in charge of the island he has dominated for 47 years.

Senior officials have in the past few days assured Cubans that Castro, who is due to turn 80 next Sunday, is on the road to recovery.

The news of his illness last Monday stunned the nation of 11 million people and prompted heated speculation in Cuba, in the exile bastion of Miami, and beyond over Cuba's future political course.

Roberto Fernandez Retamar, a writer and member of the Council of State, said the U.S. government had expected chaos after Castro handed over power to his brother.

"They had not expected that a peaceful succession was possible. A peaceful succession has taken place in Cuba," he told a news conference.

National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon expressed satisfaction that a potentially difficult situation had been handled smoothly and took a dig at Castro's opponents.

"All those who have been dreaming, or trying to fool the world and put out the idea that something terrible would happen in Cuba, that people would take to the streets, that there would be great instability, all those the door slammed on them and they must have very swollen hands now," Alarcon said, speaking on Venezuela's Telesur network.

Val Prieto at Babalu Blog has the inside scoop on Tyrants of the Caribbean. No reaction from him yet on the use of the word succession.

A New Look For Reuters!

UPDATE: It's not getting better, either. Take a look at Confederate Yankee and the pictures he's got showing evidence of photo staging.

Favorites On The Right

John Hawkins at Right Wing News has another poll out. This one is the favorite people on the right as selected by right-of-center bloggers. This blog was one of the participants in the survey. The results:

21) Glenn Reynolds (6)
21) Laura Ingraham (6)
21) Sean Hannity (6)
21) Milton Friedman (6)
21) George Allen (6)
20) Antonin Scalia (7)
17) Hugh Hewitt (8)
17) Ann Coulter (8)
17) Tom Coburn (8)
15) Walter Williams (9)
15) Tom Tancredo (9)
14) Victor David Hanson (10)
12) Jonah Goldberg (11)
12) John Bolton (11)
11) Newt Gingrich (12)
10) Dick Cheney (13)
9) Rush Limbaugh (15)
7) Donald Rumsfeld (16)
7) Charles Krauthammer (16)
6) Michelle Malkin (17)
4) Mark Steyn (19)
4) George W. Bush (19)
2) Thomas Sowell (20)
2) Rudy Giuliani (20)
1) Condi Rice (22)

Reuters Withdraws ALL Of Adnan Hajj’s Photos

Wow, that was actually a lot faster than I would have thought possible. Reuters today withdrew every, single one of 920 photographs by Adnan Hajj. They claim to have found only two altered images.

LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.

Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement.

"Reuters has zero tolerance for any doctoring of pictures and constantly reminds its photographers, both staff and freelance, of this strict and unalterable policy."

The news and information agency announced the decision in an advisory note to its photo service subscribers. The note also said Reuters had tightened editing procedures for photographs from the conflict and apologised for the case.

Removing the images from the Reuters database excludes them from future sale.

Reuters ended its relationship with Hajj on Sunday after it found that a photograph he had taken of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on suburban Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more and darker smoke rising from buildings.

An immediate enquiry began into Hajj's other work.

It established on Monday that a photograph of an Israeli F-16 fighter over Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon and dated Aug 2, had also been doctored to increase the number of flares dropped by the plane from one to three.

They fail to give credit to Rusty Shackleford for that last discovery, though. But, now they have an even more desperate need for my skills! Maybe they'll consider my application!