Meanwhile, Down In Mexico

The leftist loser of the Mexican presidential election sent his flock of followers to blockade foreign banks. That should give foreign investors a real good feeling about putting any money into Mexico.

Protesters surrounded Mexico City offices of U.S.-based Citigroup's Mexican unit Banamex, the Bancomer bank owned by Spain's BBVA and the British giant HSBC They sat on the ground around the buildings and vowed to block access for several hours.

The leftists are backing Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who narrowly lost the presidential vote to conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon and claims it was rigged.

Election officials were to begin a recount of votes from 9 percent of polling stations on Wednesday in a bid to clear up the allegations and calm a crisis that has split the country.

But Lopez Obrador is demanding a full recount of all 41 million votes. His protesters have crippled Mexico City for the last 10 days by setting up tents in its Zocalo square and on the main boulevard running through the business district.

They have vowed to extend the civil disobedience campaign with surprise protests across the country this week.

All but one of Mexico's major banks are in the hands of foreign companies and the industry's sell-off has been a symbol of free market reforms in Mexico, so there was little surprise over the election protesters' new choice of target.

"Now it is the banks' turn," said Gerardo Fernandez, a spokesman for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution.

AMLO will destroy Mexico's economy in his lust to be president. Once again, who is paying for all this? These protesters are not earning a living, so how are they eating? Why do I suspect the support checks bear a Venezuelan logo?

Aren’t You Missing Something?

Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, has an op-ed in today's Washington Post. I've read it twice now. I still can't find any mention of Hezbollah starting the war. Or one single mention of their repeated violation of the international laws Mr. Siniora firmly believes Israel must adhere to. Not a single word about Hezbollah's continued, in fact near continuous, violations of the Geneva Conventions that they are bound to by virtue of their participation in the Lebanese government.

Not one single word.

All of it is a demand that Israel stop. Israel withdraw. Israel submit to international law. Israel give up land that the UN doesn't not recognize as Lebanon's to take. Israel, Israel, Israel.

When and if Mr. Siniora recognizes that Hezbollah started the war and is committing repeated war crimes against the citizens of Lebanon, then maybe there will be reason to heed his voice. Until then, he's merely providing cover for terrorists while trying to generate pity that Hezbollah's actions do not warrant.

Fauxtojournalism

By now, we are sure you must have heard of the unluckiest multiple home owner in Lebanon. This is a woman shown wailing over the remains of two separate houses. KT Cat assures us this is a mistake and that the woman is actually the insurance underwriter for the multiple structures.

Nonetheless, having been exposed, her usefulness to the freelance photographer has come to an end. But fear not, she has been able to find new gainful employment as a spokeswailer. Here we see her decrying the lack of a living wage at that big, evil retailer.

Here she is upset over the wreck of a circus train in 1904.

And here she is lamenting yet another revival of disco. We heartily agree.

(Note: This is not to make light of genuine suffering generated in this or any war, but to point out the absurdity of the blatant media manipulation of the news going on right now.)

Unilaterally Assured Destruction

Bernard Lewis, writing in the Opinion Journal describes the problems with dealing with a culture that seems bent on Unilaterally Assured Destruction.

There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers. This worldview and expectation, vividly expressed in speeches, articles and even schoolbooks, clearly shape the perception and therefore the policies of Ahmadinejad and his disciples.

Even in the past it was clear that terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam had no compunction in slaughtering large numbers of fellow Muslims. A notable example was the blowing up of the American embassies in East Africa in 1998, killing a few American diplomats and a much larger number of uninvolved local passersby, many of them Muslims. There were numerous other Muslim victims in the various terrorist attacks of the last 15 years.

The phrase "Allah will know his own" is usually used to explain such apparently callous unconcern; it means that while infidel, i.e., non-Muslim, victims will go to a well-deserved punishment in hell, Muslims will be sent straight to heaven. According to this view, the bombers are in fact doing their Muslim victims a favor by giving them a quick pass to heaven and its delights–the rewards without the struggles of martyrdom. School textbooks tell young Iranians to be ready for a final global struggle against an evil enemy, named as the U.S., and to prepare themselves for the privileges of martyrdom.

A direct attack on the U.S., though possible, is less likely in the immediate future. Israel is a nearer and easier target, and Mr. Ahmadinejad has given indication of thinking along these lines. The Western observer would immediately think of two possible deterrents. The first is that an attack that wipes out Israel would almost certainly wipe out the Palestinians too. The second is that such an attack would evoke a devastating reprisal from Israel against Iran, since one may surely assume that the Israelis have made the necessary arrangements for a counterstrike even after a nuclear holocaust in Israel.

The first of these possible deterrents might well be of concern to the Palestinians–but not apparently to their fanatical champions in the Iranian government. The second deterrent–the threat of direct retaliation on Iran–is, as noted, already weakened by the suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today, without parallel in other religions, or for that matter in the Islamic past. This complex has become even more important at the present day, because of this new apocalyptic vision.

I have mentioned that the Palestinians would also be eliminated if Iran tries to obliterate Israel. Given Iran's obvious intent to fight to the last drop of Hezbollah's blood, I can't see them caring who gets caught in the fallout. The West's foolish left makes a war more likely, not less by not coming to grips with Iran. The other problem is one a number of other people have touched on. What is Iran planning on August 22nd? It is a not insignificant day in the Iranian belief structure:

What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.

A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an 11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. "I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers [i.e., the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another's hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours."

This chain of events has been happening since Jimmy Carter failed to support the Shah of Iran and allowed Khomeini and his ideology free reign. If war comes, history will remember Carter as the one who failed to stop it while it was still early enough to do so.

A Warning To Mariners

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
that's where the fish are flying ever
Trying to kill you today
Everywhere the flying sturgeon
Aim right for your head
Soon you will need to see a surgeon
And take to your bed.

(Our apologies to Stephen Foster for getting the rpms up)

An alert reader who shares our concern about the ongoing animal uprising sent us a link to a story posted over at the Jawa Report. We're very glad to see our efforts are raising awareness of the threat! (Crosspatch suggested using Madonna's song, "Like a Sturgeon", but she creeps us out).

A man riding a "personal watercraft" (meaning one of those annoying jet ski thingees) was viciously attacked by an airborne 4-foot long sturgeon. That's right - airborne. The scaly assassin went right for the poor guys head, knocking him unconscious into the water. He was rescued by his girlfriend, who managed to avoid being hit herself. (Though I'm betting she was trying to look everywhere at once!)

Blake Nicholas Fessenden, 23, was heading north on the Suwannee River Sunday just north of the Hart Springs Sand Bar when he was hit and fell off the craft, according to a statement from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Fessenden was knocked unconscious.

His girlfriend was riding another watercraft behind him and was able to get to Fessenden and hold his head above water before passengers on another vessel arrived to pull him from the water, officials said.

He was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

A 31-year-old woman was hospitalized in April after a 3-foot-long sturgeon jumped into a boat being driven by the woman's fiance. The pair was also on the Suwannee River.

Officials are calling this "an accident". We, of course, know better. This was a deliberate attack meant to advance the evil intentions of the animal uprising. Just to let you know how deadly this conspiracy is, sturgeons can grow to be 200 pounds and still jump 8 feet into the air.

Paging Captain Ahab.

Charles Johnson In The WaPo

Charles Johnson, proprietor of Little Green Footballs, makes it into a story in the Washington Post this morning. They give him credit for exposing the Reuters photo fakery fiasco. (They don't mention My Pet Jawa's busting of the other photoshop, though).

The exposure of the doctored airstrike photo was a coup for Johnson and his four-year-old political blog, Little Green Footballs. Make that a second coup, of sorts.

In September 2004, not long after "60 Minutes II" seemed to offer damning revelations about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, Johnson was at the forefront of bloggers who raised questions about the CBS report. (Johnson used the Microsoft Word program to retype the memos used in the report and found that his computer could reproduce the same typefaces and line breaks that Dan Rather had said were produced by a manual typewriter in the mid-1970s.) The incident became a historic debacle for the network and contributed to Rather's retirement from the "CBS Evening News" anchor chair.

Little Green Football's "Reutersgate" and "Rathergate" scalps share a key characteristic: They stem from Johnson's skepticism of, if not outright hostility toward, the mainstream news media (or as some Little Green Football visitors like to refer to them when they post comments, "the lamestream media").

In Johnson's view, the news media haven't adequately sounded the alarm about threats to Western societies posed by radical Islamic groups — something he says he seeks to redress through his politically conservative blog.

"My main take is that political correctness has kept a lot of the hard truth from being spread by the mainstream media," says Johnson, 53, a professional musician in Los Angeles who spends most of his time maintaining his blog.

The article is really quite flattering to Johnson. The reporter does bring in a commenter from CAIR, one of Johnson's frequent targets. The charge is typical, that LGF is a "hate site", but the spokesman makes one absolute knee-slapper:

Not everyone, though, is a fan. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization often vilified on Johnson's blog, calls Little Green Footballs "a vicious, anti-Muslim hate site . . . that has unfortunately become popular."

The irony, Hooper says, is that if the same kind of "hatred" that appears on LGF appeared on Muslim sites, it soon would be used by LGF's fans to justify their worldview.

Which, of course, any reader of LGF knows is deflection of the first order. LGF regularly documents vileness and hate coming from Islamists from all over the world. They don't need to justify their world view.

The extremists take care of that themselves. CAIR just tries to sweep all that from public view.