European Union Comic Books

Allah links to this Telegraph report of a liberal party within the EUParliament that's publishing its own super-duper EU comic book adventure, with a dazzling EU-MP engaging in all sorts of espionage and skullduggery, one of them against "Dong Fang"--an analogue/racist cariacature of China.

Now: let me remind JYB readers that this is not the first EU venture into comic books.

You really owe it to yourself to check that out.

PS What is up with liberals writing themselves into goofy cartoons?

PPS: Note that the main character is named "Elisa Correr".

"Correr" is Spanish for "to run".

Purple Haze

Herm de berm de bork bork bork de just say "nej!"

Watch history repeat itself

Go watch this video. Now go read this, especially the middle part.

I'll even give you an excerpt to tempt you:

No doubt the Iranians have studied this, and have visited North Vietnam to see exactly how it was done. The same pattern is emerging here - Democrats are absolutely livid at Maliki. They are infuriated by him. It is a good bet they are receiving some sort of perverted backdoor intelligence that leads them to believe a lot of stuff that is not true.

And much of what the Democrats believe is simply not true:

This favorable view, however, did not prevail for long, largely as a result of distorted reporting by Mr. Halberstam on the pagoda raids that would shape the opinions of many Americans. According to a dispatch filed by Mr. Halberstam on August 23, during the evacuation of Tu Dam pagoda in Hue, at least 30 people had been killed and at least 70 wounded. This report created an international stir and caused the United Nations to send an investigative commission to South Vietnam. The commission did not reach Saigon until October 24, by which time the alleged total of Buddhist dead during the pagoda raids had shriveled to four. Upon investigation, commission members actually met and interviewed all four of these monks. Mr. Halberstam omitted his false claim from his subsequent famous book "The Best and the Brightest" (1972), but by then the damage had been done.

Can you say Jamil Hussein?

If you're not reading Penraker every day, you're missing the most underrated blog in the sphere. The guy gets a hundred hits a day and he ought to be a major player. No justice.

In defense of William Arkin (UPDATE)

Arkin has brought out the whetstoned best among the blogosphere. Let's face it, knowing John Kerry isn't running may have dispirited a few of us, and made us wonder whether blogging would still be fun without a poofy-haired nuance-monger to kick around. Oh, he's still around, and he's still saying and doing really abysmally stupid things, but as just another liberal Senator, some of the thrill has gone away.

Enter Washington Post columnist William Arkin. Though he lacks the poofy hair, he has continued to defend his outrageous smears against the American military. No, he can't possibly fill candidate John Kerry's handsewn Italian tassel loafers, but he's stepping up to act like a big self-important tool and take some hard hits for the team.

Whatever team he's on.

Iowahawk has another 'defense' of Arkin, and Ham and Geoff weigh in nicely as well. And Powerline critiques his especially lame non-apology:

Mercenary, of course, is an insult and pejorative, and it does not accurately describe the condition of the American soldier today. I sincerely apologize to anyone in the military who took my words literally.

Which is just an inverse take on Kerry's botched joke: if you're serving in Iraq, you probably got sent there because you lack the education to parse out my highfalutin' metaphors.

By the way, I apologize to Mr. Arkin if he takes my provocative description of him as a "self-important tool" literally. In its literal meaning, a "tool" is something useful.

(P.S. Absolutely this post title was calculated to get hits off of RSS feeders. You got a problem wid dat?)

UPDATE: Back here I predicted Hewitt was already phoning up Arkin for a flensing interview. He was, and Arkin just turned him down. Shame. But I'd be lying pretty low, too, if I had just shot myself in the feet as many time as Arkin has this week.

Another border shooting lands law enforcement officer in jail

There were certainly two sides to the account of the two Border Patrol agents who went to jail for shooting a fleeing pot smuggler in the butt. It sounds like they were being pretty shady in the way they covered their tracks.

There's another case in the Washington Times today that sounds less defensible. A deputy is going to jail for ten years because he shot at a Suburban (full of illegal immigrants) that tried to run him down. The Times paints a pretty sympathetic picture of the deputy, and the facts of the case sound very different: there seems to be little dispute that the Suburban really did try to hit Deputy Guillermo Hernandez and that his life was in danger when he fired his weapon. He faces ten years in federal prison.

This is the same U.S. attorney who prosecuted the two Border Patrol agents. (They're becoming experts at this sort of case!) Why is this even taking up the time of the federal courts? Isn't the state justice system capable of disciplining Deputy Hernandez? And isn't ten years a little severe for someone who reacted in the heat of the moment after nearly being run over?

Given the facts of the pot-smuggler shooting, I'm not going to jump to conclusions about what ought to happen with this case until I hear both sides. But this account certainly raises my hackles.

San Francisco Liberals and their Sock Puppets

There's a new Greenwald in town, and he's working for SF Mayor Gavin Newsom(scroll down):

Mayoral spin master Peter Ragone appears to have been caught with his fingers in the blogger jar.

The local news site SFist has discovered that Ragone's home computer is the source of a series of mayoral-friendly postings that have gone out under a different name.

Some of the postings praise boss Gavin Newsom. Others go after Newsom's critics -- most notably ABC-7 reporter Dan Noyes, who has made bushwhacking the increasingly flustered Newsom his favorite pastime.

Postings going out under a fake name have, in turn, prompted some to compare them to Nixonian dirty tricks and others to crack jokes about Ragone having way, way too much time on his hands.

Whatever the case, ABC's Noyes -- who in one posting was referred to as a "sad, sad guy" -- quickly confronted Ragone on camera about the postings.

Ragone denied that he was posting under fake names, and insisted that Web poster John Nelson is a real person -- actually a close family friend.

Indeed, Nelson must be a very good friend, given that some of the postings have gone out from Ragone's home before 8 a.m.

"What can I say, we had a nerd attack,'' Ragone said. "I've learned my lesson."

But I like the "nerd attack" line. Sounds like Louis and Gilbert put a protractor to his throat.

All in all, it's pretty amazing loyalty considering how Mayor Newsom treats his campaign staff...and their wives.

Hmm. A philandering mayor who advocates gay marriage? Newsom thinks that's a political career-ender. Form the first link:

"I certainly won't be appointed by any administration or special councils because I'm a time bomb and too controversial,'' Newsom said, referring to the political storm that arose after he unilaterally authorized gay marriages in San Francisco.

And it's not just the Republican critics that Newsom was talking about.

"God as my witness ... one of the three Democrats you mentioned as presidential candidates (we're told it was Barack Obama) will not be photographed with me, will not be in the same room as me, even though I've done fundraisers for that particular person not once but twice, because of this issue."

Arkin Stoned?

Right now the blogosphere is in full hyenas-on-a-dead-wildebeest mode on dull, incoherent, ungrateful, anti-military WaPo columnist William Arkin. So far I think Lileks has the best take. I expect Hewitt has already invited him on his show for a meticulous, relelntless deboning today or tomorrow. I'd buy tickets.

P.S. "If I weren't the United States..." Mr. Freud, your slip is showing.

My Readers Are Skeptical

Dude, that cop's not really on fire, say my commenters on this post.

Au contraire, mon freres.