Monday, April 13, 2009

Et Tu, Brute?

As longtime readers know, we normally avoid posting about LGF’s gradual retreat from any association with most anti-jihad bloggers and writers. Tundra Tabloids has been following this meme, and has created an amusing graphic showing a bus and all the people that Charles Johnson has thrown under it. KGS recently ran out of room and had to expand the picture to add the latest victims.

I know this runs against our customary practice, but I couldn’t let this one pass unnoticed.

One of our readers — who is on CAIR’s mailing list — received a press release today and forwarded it to us. CAIR is alerting its members to an upcoming “Islamophobic” conference in Florida in which Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch will participate [Correction, for the record: CAIR chose to attack Robert Spencer concerning this conference, even though he is not involved in it]. The email included the following paragraph:

The Little Green Footballs blog, also widely known for its Islamophobic viewpoint, wrote of Spencer’s site: “His website has descended into a true hate site at this point, dominated by extreme, bigoted commenters who regularly advocate genocide and mass murder of Muslims.”

So this is what it’s come to: CAIR is now citing Little Green Footballs to score points against one of the most important Counterjihad activists of our time.

Thanks, Charles. You did us all a real big favor.

And now you can rest easily, knowing that your site is 100% Nazi-free.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

A more extensive excerpt from the CAIR press release is below the jump.
- - - - - - - - -
“If Representative Hasner truly wishes to represent Florida’s diverse religious and ethnic population, he should immediately disassociate himself and the state legislature from this motley collection of Islamophobes and Muslim-bashers.” — CAIR-South Florida Executive Director Altaf Ali

________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fla. House GOP Leader Linked to Anti-Islam Hate Fest Rep. Hasner asked to disassociate himself from ‘Islamophobes and Muslim-bashers’

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/13/09) — The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on the leader of that state’s House Republicans to disassociate himself from an upcoming anti-Islam conference backed by a “motley collection of Islamophobes and Muslim-bashers.”

CAIR said Rep. Adam Hasner is on the “host committee” for the April 27 conference in Delray Beach, Fla., featuring Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders. Wilders was recently denied entry to Britain because of his extreme anti-Muslim views, including urging that the Quran, Islam’s revealed text, be banned.

[…]

Other conference backers include Joe Kaufman, a Florida anti-Muslim extremist with a long history of seeking to marginalize and disenfranchise the American Muslim community and its institutions. He has in the past promoted the views of the terrorist organizations Kach and Kahane Chai and praised the Kahane terror group and its founder Mier Kahane on a forum of the radical Jewish Defense League in Florida.

[…]

In 2006, Kaufman joined forces with an anti-Islam preacher in Florida to block the expansion of a mosque in Boca Raton. “This mosque should not exist on American shores,” said Kaufman. (St. Petersburg Times, 7/14/06)

In 2003, Kaufman was forced to remove a link to kahane.org on his website after CAIR exposed his efforts to promote the terror group. That same year, the Washington Post reported that the United States added to its list of foreign terrorist organizations “newkach.org, kahane.org, kahane.net, kahanetzadak.com as aliases for the Jewish group Kahane Chai or Kach, which is suspected of organizing attacks on Palestinians.”

Frank Gaffney, one of the event’s other sponsors, is linked to an anti-Islam group that has advocated prison terms in the U.S. for “adherence to Islam” and that questioned whether women and African-Americans should be allowed to vote. Gaffney has claimed that the use of Islamic finance in America is a form of treason. “[I]t is advancing a criminal conspiracy whose purpose is the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution and government in favor of Islamic rule,” wrote Gaffney. (Washington Times, 9/16/08)

Another event sponsor, Pamela Geller, operates one of the Internet’s most vicious anti-Islam sites. Her blog features categories such as “Advancing Islamic Lies,” “Islam 2008: Religion of Barbarism” and “Slavery: An Arab custom.” Geller has even been criticized by other Islamophobes for her extremism and for supporting far-right groups in Europe.

Robert Spencer, who has also been criticized for the extremism exhibited on his anti-Muslim blog, is listed as a conference “coalition partner.” Spencer was recently involved in a controversy over his joining a Facebook group advocating genocide of Muslims in Turkey.

The Little Green Footballs blog, also widely known for its Islamophobic viewpoint, wrote of Spencer’s site: “His website has descended into a true hate site at this point, dominated by extreme, bigoted commenters who regularly advocate genocide and mass murder of Muslims.”

The founder of another conference sponsoring group, Act! for America’s Brigitte Gabriel, told the Australian Jewish News: “Every practising Muslim is a radical Muslim.” She also claimed that “Islamo-fascism is a politically-correct word…it’s the vehicle for Islam…Islam is the problem.”

When asked whether Americans should “resist Muslims who want to seek political office in this nation,” Gabriel said: “Absolutely. If a Muslim who has — who is — a practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day — this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.”

“If Representative Hasner truly wishes to represent Florida’s diverse religious and ethnic population, he should immediately disassociate himself and the state legislature from this motley collection of Islamophobes and Muslim-bashers,” said CAIR-South Florida Executive Director Altaf Ali.

Ali noted that earlier this year, Hasner attempted to block a “Florida Muslim Capitol Day.” In an e-mail to more than a dozen Jewish lobbyists, he wrote: “By now, I can’t imagine you haven’t heard about this upcoming lobbying day for Muslims in Tallahassee.Do you all intend to be part of an information campaign in opposition to it?”

SEE: House Leader E-Mails Alert About Muslim Event to Jewish Lobbyists (St. Petersburg Times)

In 2007, Hasner sponsored a screening of the anti-Muslim film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” for state legislators.

[…]

CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

- END -

CONTACT: CAIR-South Florida Executive Director Altaf Ali, 954-272-0490, 954-298-8214, E-Mail: aali@cair.com; CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ramzy Kilic, Tel: 813-514-1414 or 813-486-2529, E-Mail: rkilic@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787 or 202-341-4171, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Charles spreads lies about almost everything, from Robert Spencer to Serbia to the counterjihad movement in general. What a singularly annoying person. I am just so sick and tired of him. Have you seen his lauding of Obama since the election? It's absolutely disgusting.

nimbus said...

Has he reverted to being a liberal, or what? What has happened to him?

Anonymous said...

Charles is technically a 9/11 conservative and he seems to have reverted to his liberal roots. I trace his reversion to October 2007 (October 19, to be exact), when he developed a rather strange vendetta, which he still has today, against the excellent Belgian political party Vlaams Belang.

nimbus said...

For a while I tried giving Charles the benefit of the doubt, but he's become more and more liberal lately, and with him attacking Robert Spencer, that was the last straw. Sad. I like to look at the quicklinks from the viewers at the top of his page, but I can't stand looking at his topics. What in the world caused him to revert??? And I wonder what his viewership now is.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen Robert Spencer's post about this whole thing?

Félicie said...

He's gone off the deep end. Have you seen his entry on Obama's bow to the King of audi Arabia? He tried to say that Bush did the same thing and presented as evidence a video of Bush accepting some medal. Even his lizards took him to task for it. He kept mocking them, Daily Kos style, about becoming paranoid and labeling Obama as evil. I swear, he is fast becoming an Obot.

Holger said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Holger said...

Google.video: Complete Idiot's Guide to the New World Order

Armance said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Armance said...

He's gone off the deep end. Have you seen his entry on Obama's bow to the King of audi Arabia? He tried to say that Bush did the same thing and presented as evidence a video of Bush accepting some medal. Even his lizards took him to task for it. He kept mocking them, Daily Kos style, about becoming paranoid and labeling Obama as evil. I swear, he is fast becoming an Obot.Indeed, I saw that thread and the comments and poor Charles reached a new low. I wouldn't be surprised either if in short time he becomes one of Hussein O-bow-a's most passionate supporters. Perhaps he feels a sort of regret that he couldn't bow himself.

Holger said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Baron Bodissey said...

Holger --

Please don't paste long URLs into the comments; they make the post page too wide and mess up the appearance of the permalink page.

Use link tags; the instructions are at the top of the full post's comment section.

----------------------

Holger said...Charles is bought by bigger interests!

- Illuminati perhaps that wants to institute a New World Order? Or: CIA? Bilderberger Group. Council on Foreign Relations. Trilateral.

C'mon, guys, it's obvious "something happened" which lead him to completely change his tune. He was bought up, because he was one of the biggest blogs out there and could influence the most.

He sold out. ...And if you don't believe the Illuminati etc. to be more than a conspiracy theory, do some research on it:

link4/14/2009 1:51 PM

Baron Bodissey said...

Look, Holger, I'm prone to paranoid moments myself, but consider this...

If Charles was bought and paid for, why did he run his blog into the ground and cause his trafiic to drop by 75%? Not much value there.

Or do you think he was bought and then instructed to destroy the LGF brand?

Baron Bodissey said...

Holger --

Sorry, I think I deleted an additional comment by mistake.

Feel free to re-post it. But use embedded links instead of pasted URLs.

Holger said...

Not sure at all about how it all ties together, Baron... BUT unless he went clinically insane why would he turn on a dime like that? He has enough facts to know that what he is saying isn't true. It's just like politicians. To the regular folks it just seems they're "dumb", but if you look at it from another angle, that they might be on a NWO-agenda for instance, then it ALL makes sense. And you can see how shrewd they are! Seriously: the borders, the economy (establishing shariah banking), the whole dialogue with the enemy bs, the misguided wars - i.e. not fighting where the enemy REALLY is etc. Honestly. I know it sounds paranoid, but when you start looking into it it makes sense. - That being said, I'm not saying 911 was an inside job. And if by the slimest chance possible it was an "Illuminati" job, I'm sure they collaborated with willing Jihadis. =)

Anyway, back to Charles Johnson:
Maybe he was bought and it just didn't work out that well once he began taking orders? People simply saw through his lies. It would be typical of the "top" people to see us as sheep and that we'd buy anything that came out of the alternative media, because they know many don't trust the MSM anymore. In other words, they underestimated the intelligence of the people. And as for Charles Johnson, well he basically committed harakiri. Or perhaps it is Karma coming back with his plummeting popularity? His credibility is next to zero, and once his bosses realize that they'll move on and he'll be stuck writing about bikes again. That is if anyone is interested in hearing even about that from him.

I'll start digging deeper if you think I might be on to something =) In fact, I encourage everyone to do their research on the NWO etc, because it isn't just an urban legend. They ARE talking about it! It's documented. All you need to do is go on youtube or google.video and hear the Bushs', Clintons', Gordon Brown and Obama among others discuss it.

Charles Johnson is just on the payroll, just like they tried to hire Benjamin Fulford, the man in charge of Forbes Magazine's Asia division. He came out talking about it and it was BIG news for a while, since he isn't just some nutty crackpot.

Morgan said...

Charles Johnson has allowed himself to become an insignificant sideliner as far as the Counterjihad is concerned.

And it's not just the Counterjihad. It's also in regards to intelligent design and the questionable validity of Obama's birth certificate as well.

He derides those who believe intelligent design is valid and question whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii, same as those who think Vlaams Belang is not neo-Nazi.

As far as I'm concerned, he's just an insignificant tool.

Félicie said...

Armance:"I wouldn't be surprised either if in short time he becomes one of Hussein O-bow-a's most passionate supporters. "

OK, I admit it: I'v been having the same thoughts as Holger (i.e. Charles Johnson having been bought off), but didn't dare to voice them for the fear of being called a paranoid conspiracy nut.

My reasons for thinking are his complete turnaround regarding the Obama issue. People just don't change their views this suddenly. especially considering that with every passing day Obama gives more, not fewer, reasons for concern.

Baron says: "If Charles was bought and paid for, why did he run his blog into the ground and cause his trafiic to drop by 75%? Not much value there."

But maybe the goal is not to run his blog into the ground but to convert its supporters, given that it's still a very popular blog?

Look how he does it. He tries to be subtle. Instead of openly bashing Obama, he is on an "anri-extremism" and "objectivity" crusade. Yes, the left is bad. Yes, some of Obama's policy decisions are regrettable. But look - the right is no better. They are all suffering from the Obama derangement syndrome. They simplistically portray him as evil and don't give credit where credit is due. He simply wants to redress the balance, ahem... Look at the last 3 Obama-related topics: the bow, the pizza, and kudos to Obama fro the successful naval rescue mission. It's the same stance - an attempt of a subtle shift of focus, a diluting of truth, an obscuring of crucial differences. Honestly, analyze what he is doing. This doesn't strike me as a display of immediate emotional reactions, but as a deliberate and cool-headed long-range strategy aimed at gradual change of course.

This is why I am wondering about him being bought off.

Félicie said...

By the way, Baron, why do you say that his traffic has dropped by 75%? When I started reading his blog, it had 2-3 thousand comments every day. Now it has 5-6 thousand comments. I don't remember there ever being 1000 comments after each post before. It used to be several hundred. (OK, 99% of them is trash, but still...)

Holger said...

Felice! You had some very interesting points. Yes, of course he has been bought off. I'd bet my house on it.

As for the right and left-issue; Well, at the top there is no such thing, I believe. They work together for a common purpose. It's good cop/bad cop but they're on the same team, and that's why there will never be any real difference, no matter what you vote. The Republicans didn't tighten border security. Neither will the Democrats. I don't think it's about gaining voters, in the latter case, because no matter who people vote for it'll still be for one of "the chosen" who are working with the Illuminati, Bilderberger or similar. INSTEAD, and here's the point, they want to erase all sharp borderlines in order to later open it up for the "Amero". Just like the EU and the coming EUrabia. That's why they're massimporting people from the Middle East - to make it indistinguisable, and so the concept of borders lose all meaning. It's not due to the fluffy principals of multiculturalism but in order to eventually have one world government.

I know it sounds paranoid, honestly I do, BUT if you don't believe this to be true, at least do some research on it before you dismiss it. There is only ONE theory that can explain everything from the multicultural madness, lacking borders, shariah banking, 2nd amendment ban, the banking crisis etc...

If people don't understand the underlying principles behind what's happening any effort to turn the trend will be just as ineffective as the "war on terror" has been, ie. combating the symptoms rather than the root cause.

Holger said...

Excerpt from the newsletter: "Our Country Desrves Better". NWO!!!

"Mark Williams of the Our Country Deserves Better Committee here. My friends, I am disgusted by the actions of the Department of Homeland Security which has directed local law enforcement agencies to focus their attention on conservatives.

It's a shocking document, folks. The report warns of "rightwing extremism" and Washington Times reveals that the report defines such extremism as, "groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority" and "groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

Barack Obama's administration is basically telling law enforcement that the potential enemy to this country and law-and-order are individuals who are pro-life, want the U.S. border secured, and believe in state's rights. And it gets even worse: the DHS report says military men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan should be perceived to be a potential threat. "

Baron Bodissey said...

Félicie --

By the way, Baron, why do you say that his traffic has dropped by 75%?Back in the fall of 2004, if I remember correctly, LGF had over 400,000 hits a day. Admittedly, that was during Rathergate, and times are leaner now, what with all the competition.

But still, if you look at his Alexa traffic rankings over the last year or so, you'll see the steady decline.

I can't see why buying him would have done anybody any good. It would be like buying GM.

His blog is not a major force anymore. Except for people who go there for the links, there are only the hard-core lizardoids left. Admittedly, they will believe anything CJ says. But what good does that do whoever put him on the payroll?

The advantage of this escapes me. The remaining lizardoids are not going to form the obedient cadres of some right-wing fifth column infiltratingAmerican conservatism. They're just not smart enough to do that kind of work.

Hey -- maybe They should buy us instead. How much do you think I should ask for?

Baron Bodissey said...

Holger --

Speaking of paranoia, have you ever read Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon? It's a masterpiece.

In the book Pynchon composed a series of "Proverbs for Paranoids". My favorite was:

You may not touch the Master, but you may tickle his creatures.

Anonymous said...

Holger

Worth a read

Blogosphere 'revolution' is as phoney as our redundant parliamentary system

X said...

DP11, in the context of European politics - and especially British politics - that article is spot on. I'm not so sure how it applies to US politics except that there may be a tier of blogs in the US that want to be like the media.

LGF, incidentally, strikes me as such a blog. CJ wanted to replace the legacy media but rather than being something better and different he's turned toward copying their activities and motivations. It's rather like rightist parties moving progressively more to the left in order to capture the "centre ground". l you do is lose your base.

Félicie said...

Holger, all this stuff that has been coming out lately about the new world order, the history of the Federal Reserve, etc., is fascinating. But I am still on the fence as to whether to believe it or not. Maybe some of it is true. But I do, at this point, resist the idea that all our human history has been shaped by a group of people. If it is so, it must be on some spiritual, metaphysical level, such as Eric Voegelin's idea of gnosticism, or something as general as evil or Satanism, if you will, but not as a specific manifestation through the Rothschild family, for example. I looked up Benjamin Fulford and watched one of his videos. According to him, the history of this secret society goes back to Mesopotamia, Ancient Jews, and the Hebrew Bible, and has been one uninterrupted line. As a person with religious sensibilities, I cannot accept this worldview. I also don't like the anti-semitic implications of this theory. But I am sufficiently interested not to automatically reject everything these people say and keep an open mind.

Baron, I see what you are saying. If before there used to be 400,000 hits daily, now there are only 70,000. It is a big drop. But maybe CJ's new employers did not anticipate it. They do, after all, buy out paper media, why not the electronic one? Maybe they were hoping that CJ would be able to re-program his flock.

Today's headline is a case in point. More attacks on "right wing nuts/conspiracy mongers."

"The latest cause for hyperventilation in the right-wing blogosphere is a report from the Department of Homeland Security on the need for vigilance against extreme right-wing groups like Posse Comitatus, militias, “Patriot” groups, and neo-Nazis like the Christian Identity weirdos. Some bloggers, prompted by World Net Daily, are reading this as an attempt to “smear half of the country or more as kooks for criticizing the government’s handling of the economy.”"

In other words, we are all hyperventilating, hysterical idiots for worrying´, according to him. This is just not normal. Something is going on. If he is on payroll, then I am glad that his taskmasters have miscalculated, and his influence is plummeting.

Profitsbeard said...

Johnson's apologetics for Obama will be his undoing, because Barry Hussein is only going to get worse and worse, and drag all his little lickspittles down with him.

CJ has hitched his wagon not to a star but a black hole.

Nothing racist implied ;)Pamela G. at Atlas Shrugs has a droll video link to a parody of the Lizards in their Bunker as the Gotterdammerung approaches, and Charles is forced to closed his "Lizard Lounge" to stop the dissenting voices.

Holger said...

I will definitely read that book! Thanks for the tip Baron.

Well, Felice, I agree about the whole "anti-zionist-ranting" of Benjamin Fulford. But still, he is an intriguing character. Would someone in his position really jeopardize everything by risking to become the joke of the year? However, people did nonetheless take it seriously, which adds further validity that people higher up knows about Illuminati's exsistence too. It's just us the flock of sheep who don't know for sure.

And finally back to CJ... Yes, he's GM and that's exactly why they bought him. They're looking at it from the angle of reaching out to the most people, even if it's old and rigid. But that's probably not WHEN they bought him. The rigidness and plummeting happened after he switched tune.
I don't think the MAIN purpose with buying Charles Johnson was too convince us of joining the NWO, but rather create a rift. To divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book! So that's why they acquired the rights to one big, significant, established player rather than an up'n'comer which would die much more easily or couldn't have such a great impact if attacking heavy weight as Spencer, Baron, EUropean politicians, Bostom and Pamela Geller etc. No, it had to be someone with power and punch! That's what I believe happened.

Avery Bullard said...

From neocon establishmentarians like David 'axis of evil' Frum to popular blogs like LGF and a few others I'm seeing more attacks on the 'far right', social conservatives, and 'anti-immigrant' anti-amnesty people, than on the left or Muslims.

The advocates of the Iraq debacle, which in turn brought the world President Obama, know that in the public mind the Iraq war and anti-jihadism are linked to unfashionable white Christian conservative Republicans.

Prediction: the neocons and 9/11 conservatives like CJ will win out and eventually be seen as benign and thus respectable by the left establishment; their critics on the right will be exiled to political Siberia like the John Birch Society and so many other 'right wing extremists' before them. (The neocons in particular are experts at abandoning sinking ships).

The parasites have fed off their conservative host; little of the host now remains. It makes sense for the neocons to distance themselves from the declining demographic that is so discredited and despised in the eyes of fashionable whites and virtually all non-whites. Next up will be the demographic demise of the conservative base.

(It says a lot about the failed conservatives when even self-proclaimed 'demography bore' Mark Steyn cared less about America's demographics than about 'liberating' Iraq, freeing Afghan women, and hating the 'Euroweenies'.)

Ex-Dissident said...

Like many here, I was once a fan of LGF. Johnson managed to gather a community of clear thinking people who discussed important news. I think this changed when he became more and more obsessed with controlling "intolerant" speech on his site. I still think that Charles is a smart guy worth reading, but I also think he has isolated himself from constructive critics. The comments that he allows there essentially parrot his own statements. Strangely I find that Johnson's views are completely in sync with a liberal troll on Malkin's site called Chapoteer. It makes me wonder if this is the same person, despite Johnson's protestations that he never comments on other's sites.

Zenster said...

Off Topic: Baron, there's a screw loose in the server. I thought it was just my crappy old computer but here in this thread it is quite clear.

Please note how often an HTML isolated group (usually in Italics) suffers an immediate text-wrap connection with the next (usually non-Italicized) paragraph.

This started happening in the last three days and I thought it might just be inattention on my own part. Now it seems as though it is not.

I'll email you about this as well.

Baron Bodissey said...

Zenster --

It's a Blogger thing. You wouldn't understand it.

Seriously, it used to happen years ago, and everyone had to compensate for it when using italics. Then it quit doing it.

I think Blogger must have reverted to an older piece of software.

The way around it is to close the italics before the final punctuation, i.e. a period or a quote mark.

Like this:

<i>Text here.

Another paragraph.

Final paragraph</i>.

A real test:

Text here.

Another paragraph.

Final paragraph
.

...and then resume.

Rolf Krake said...

Hehe,

The Lizard Lounge, saw this brilliant parody on Charles Johnson on NukeGingrich, a very good laugh :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFgKXAphIlc