the Wednesday Edition

I get the feeling, while reading news articles today, that I’m being sold a bad used car. It looks good at first glance. I walk around it and don’t see any dents so I get interested and kick the tires. Then I open the door and get in and MAN… something stinks!

Associated Press writer Michael J. Sniffen pens a Trojan horse of a yarn that makes me wonder what exactly he is inhaling. In Hate crimes rose 8 percent in 2006 he starts off with some hard hitting facts:

WASHINGTON - Hate crime incidents rose nearly 8 percent last year, the FBI reported Monday, as civil rights advocates increasingly take to the streets to protest what they call official indifference to intimidation and attacks against blacks and other minorities.

Increasingly in what way? More than in the seventies? I Googled the term “official indifference to intimidation” and got seven links that pointed to this article. Thats it. “They” say that but the only person who can be attributed to putting those words together, in the whole wild world of Google, is him. He also writes that it’s attacks against blacks and “other” minorities. If blacks are minorities and the others are minorities then why single them out? I woder if he has an axe to grind?

In the next paragraph he states some facts that I will get back to shortly but want to get to the stink of this article. It’s the old bait and switch I tell ya! He slips in an op-ed about the incidents in Jena. The meat of this article talks about Jena and even quotes the the honorable Rev. Al:

“The FBI report confirms what we have been saying for many months about the severe increase in hate crimes,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who organized Friday’s march. “What is not reported, however, is the lack of prosecution and serious investigation by the Justice Department to counter this increase in hate crimes.” Sharpton called for Attorney General Michael Mukasey to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders to discuss this enforcement.

7 paragraphs of propaganda hidden in the trunk of this rehashed, piece of crap jalopy. He couldn’t have read Craig Franklin’s article in the CSM about what really went on under that tree. As he says:

There’s just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative of racial injustice.

Its a must read if you haven’t already been there.

The AP article ends with some cherry picked stats  so you’re better off getting them from the horses mouth. The smell’s a lot better.

New Taliban rules target Afghan teachers By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Sat Dec 9, 2:26 PM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban gunmen who murdered two teachers in eastern Afghanistan early Saturday were only following their rules: Teachers receive a warning, then a beating, and if they continue to teach must be killed.

What is the deal with our wonderful friends at the AP? Don’t they know when to say when? This report on the escape of Saddam’s nephew is hard enough to believe considering the source but what I found by doing a couple of Google searches blows my mind.
It starts reasonably enough:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for financing insurgents and possessing bombs escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq with the help of a police officer, authorities said.

Pretty straight forward so far but the obligatory deathcount that has nothing to do with the main story comes along next, as usual:

Sectarian attacks killed at least 20 people, including five who died in a suicide car bombing outside a Shiite shrine in Karbala, police said. Officers also found 39 bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad that apparently were victims of revenge killings by Sunni Arabs and Shiites.

Revenge killings by Sunni Arabs and Shiites? Are they working together now?

The escape by Saddam’s nephew underlined one of the problems facing the U.S. military as it tries to train enough Iraqi security personnel so U.S. troops can go home: the ability of Sunni Arab insurgents and Shiite militiamen to infiltrate Iraqi police forces.

OK, now Sunnis are insurgents while Shiites are militiamen.
Anyhow, lets get to the “authorities” mentioned in that first paragraph:

Ayman Sabawi, son of Saddam’s half brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, escaped from a prison 45 miles west of the northern city of Mosul in the afternoon with the help of a policeman, said a local police commander, Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri.

Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an Interior Ministry spokesman, confirmed the escape but declined to discuss any details.

We’ve heard all about the problems verifying the mysterious Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf @ Michelle Malkin, Hotair, Gateway and all the rest, but I found it strange that both of the characters in the above paragraphs had the same first names.

I am by no means an expert on middle eastern naming schemes and that combination may be as common as Bobby-Joe and Peggy-Sue are in these parts but it stuck in my craw.

I wanted to see how many articles referenced these two Brigadiers at the same time so I ran this search on Google. Pretty much all of them referenced a Dec 8th article by Daniel Wagner, the AP “journalist” who wrote the above article… until I clicked this link.

Now get this, it references police Brig. Khalaf al-Jubouri.

What? is this some horrible muslim mutant? A quick search of that name and I got 10 pages of links mostly referencing the (mostly cached) Nov 24th “6 doused sunnis” article. And on top of that, he’s referenced in the caption of a photo taken by none other than our old friend, AP photog Mohammed Ibrahim who was detained by Coalition forces back back in April.

A tangled web indeed!

It has nothing to do with the alcohol I consumed earlier because it wasn’t that much, but the Crap that I am watching on PBS right now makes me sick. The show “Holy Warriors” seems to portray Saladin as fighting a righteous cause back in the day but surrenders fact to dreamy fantasy and does zero to explain what the Muslim “Holy Warriors” did to “Palestine” in the years leading up to the Crusades.

I have just ordered this piece of crap off Amazon and will be writing a full report in more detail… much too tired to take this on right now.

Here are my Favorite stories of the week as reported by some of my favorite bloggers.

Captin Ed takes the Washington Post to task over biased and deceptive reporting regarding possible Mobile Chemical Weapons Labs found in Iraq. It seems you have to read MSM stories from bottom to top to get the whole story which condradicts the headline. Great links as always in the good Captain’s piece.

Gateway Pundit explains why the BBC issued a “Kiss Warning” to tourists in Malaysia.

Rusty @ the Jawa Report has all the info on a “hit list” of apostates to the Religion of Peace. Check it out and see if you know any of these poor saps.

Michelle Malkin has an excellent report on the possible detention of AP stringer and Johnny on the spot Jihadist photographer Bilal Hussein.

Joey @ Cabal of Doom links to an excellent piece in the WSJ regarding the treatment of scientists who don’t toe the “Global Warming” line.

Charles @ LGF posts the chilling transcript of the final moments of United Flight 93 as passengers struggled with thier hijackers.