The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info -----------------------
Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 05:47 am
“Conservative US commentators are increasingly isolated from reality and the American people,” writes Antony Loewenstein, in the gentle, conversational style of a Comintern proclamation. “Soon after the airing of Bin Laden’s tape, they compared the statements by the al-Qaeda leader to critics of the Bush administration.”
Loewenstein’s problem—aside from the publication of his Israel-bashing book being shuffled back from May to July, presumably while Antony’s dimensionless prose is beaten into shape—is that those comparisons are, how to say it, quite reality-based.
Perhaps Loewenstein is merely upset at being overlooked. After all, he spent most of last year auditioning for a Sammy speech-writing gig:
“The defeat of America and its allies in Iraq is vital …”
“US failure in Iraq gathers speed.”
“The situation in Iraq is so dire, the Bush administration will do anything it takes to try and calm the divided nation. A failed policy cannot be redeemed.”
“While the ‘Coalition’ still talks about bringing ‘democracy’ to Iraq and winning hearts and minds, the battle is lost.”
With lines like that, Loewy is obviously hoping for a sales-boosting celebrity endorsement:
An unexpected endorsement from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has resulted in a huge jump in sales for a book by a critic of US foreign policy.
William Blum’s Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower was ranked 209,000 on Amazon.com’s sales list before bin Laden mentioned it in an audiotape released on Thursday …
By Friday, the book was number 30 on the Amazon.com list.
“I was quite surprised and even shocked and amused when I found out what he’d said,” Blum said in an interview in his Washington apartment …
“If he shares with me a deep dislike for the certain aspects of US foreign policy, then I’m not going to spurn any endorsement of the book by him. I think it’s good that he shares those views and I’m not turned off by that.”
Victor Davis Hanson put it best: “The more left-wing the Westerner, the more tolerant he is of right-wing Islamic extremism.” Anyway, Antony already has the support of Holocaust revisionists at the Adelaide Institute; cadging some kind words from Binny shouldn’t be too difficult.
- But the tape is a Straussian neocon fake!!Posted by Gary on 2006 01 22 at 05:45 AM • permalink
- To be fair, there is a slight difference between what bin Liner and western leftists are saying. The binster seems to be saying, like last time, “please stop hitting us” and offering another hudna, whereas western leftists are saying “we’ve already lost”.Posted by Jim Geones on 2006 01 22 at 05:45 AM • permalink
- jim, western leftists seem desperate to surrender to bin laden lest bin liner do so first (although they’ve both been beaten to it by the French, as usual). I reckon the difference between them is that western leftists are genuine treacherous, lying toads whereas bin liner is an insencere, treacherous, lying toad
- Gary, Very true.
Anyone who believes that Bin Laden would endorse a book by an author whom is a strong defender of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, really needs to reset their bullshit meter.
I hate to say it, but Osama’s latest mysterious appearance is a fraud.
Posted by gustov_deleft on 2006 01 22 at 06:35 AM • permalink
- The magic of the francais is that it can make a counter attack with nukes (Force de Frappe) sound like something you’d be served at a posh restaurant. Like being hit with a cooked, although still damp, fish – possibly one from a South Pacific atoll.
Anthony, through sheer dint of flawed personality and confused world view, manages to make Loewenstein sound like something low and slimy which crawled out from beneath a rock.
- Bin Laden making tapes or not… one of the most intriguing things about some extreme leftist Westerners is that they seem to cheer while murderous anti-Western terrorists undermine supposed imperialist US policies.
Honest criticism is good, shooting yourself in the foot and everyone else in the face is not.
- You’re right, Gustov. Just as the support for islamic supremacists by secular, “anti-imperialist”, pro-homosexual, pro-feminist, “progressive”, pro-minority leftists is a hoax.Posted by Jim Geones on 2006 01 22 at 07:16 AM • permalink
- An observer once said of the American radical-feminist left, that they’d gone so far to the left they’d popped up on the right.
That was about the time of their alliance with religious conservatives to push various anti-pornography measures.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2006 01 22 at 08:58 AM • permalink
- gustove
On the contary, endorsing an anti-Bush book by another American is a brilliant ploy and another sign that Islamist murderers feel they have big allies in the Western left. Osama knows that like Vietnam his best hope of victory is a defeat of the US from within.
Whether Osama bin Laden himself is behind this hardly matters. If its not one goon, it will be another.
- From Gary’s link:
Well, what to do? War going badly, public apathetic at best. Easy!! roll out Osama from beyond the grave!
Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast an audio tape it says is by the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. In it, the speaker says new attacks on the US are being planned, but offers a “long-term truce” to the Americans. His timing as perfect as usual. Just as with his miraculous appearance 4 days before the 2004 US elections which conveniently acted as a strong galvanising force that benefited Bush’s re-election, this latest contrived stunt is an attempt at damage control for an administration whose recent foreign policies have been an unmitigated disaster.
But I’ve saved the best for last. Apparently the ghost of Osama past is extremely well read, having intimate knowledge of the New York Times best sellers list
I said it! I said “don’t use Stoop Davy Dave! Yes, he looks like Osama, especially with the goat outfit on. Yes, he found a nice Afghan-like cave in Pennsylvania for an authenic looking background. Yes, he’s got the Arab medieval sounding inflection down pat. But he will start spouting out information about books he’s read. He’s a show off I tell you! I don’t trust him.”
I said that.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 01 22 at 12:40 PM • permalink
I hate to say it, but Osama’s latest mysterious appearance is a fraud.
gustov_deleft — But… but… the CIA confirmed it! And progressives are supposed to believe the CIA this week! I’ve got all my e-mails from the DNC and the DCCC to prove it!
chumpai — If Osama didn’t look like a walking corpse on his good days, he’d be the new Che of the leftoids…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 22 at 01:44 PM • permalink
- Britain’s Liberal Democrats hit with second disastrous major scandal in one week.
Mark Oaten has admitted to a relationship with a male prostitute.Oaten has a wife and two kids…Are the people associated with Brokeback Mountain looking for a sequel, I wonder? Such a touching, heartwarming story that could be made out of this…
Back ontopic…it’s always funny when somebody who’s so clearly out of his mind like Loewenstein accuses his ideological opponents of being “isolated from reality”. Maybe he would make more sense if he replaced his latte frappacino diet with copious amounts of this?
- Blum’s 320-page book, which was published in 2000, begins with a chapter titled Why Do Terrorists Keep Picking on the United States?
Let see which terrorist site are in the good old US of A;
Madrid, no?
London, no?
Bali, no?
Germany, no? (the police stopped this bomb attack before it could happen)Et al.
It appears to me that this guy is wrong right from the start so why would you read?
Posted by Go Canucks on 2006 01 22 at 05:21 PM • permalink
- blogstrop — The magic of les françaises is that they can make threats of nuclear retaliation when they have no weapons that can reach Iran…Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 01 22 at 06:20 PM • permalink
- R McE
Based on this: Le Triomphant, I think they might be able to, provided the sub can sneak within range.Cheers
JMHPosted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2006 01 22 at 08:35 PM • permalink
- #22,bongobrain, Geez, what a failure! No Osama! In the meantime two whole nations under horrific tyrants have been liberated, a democratic government formed with elections in Iraq demonstrating enthusiasm for democracy, Libya’s Terrorist-in-Chief, having shat in his pants when the Coalition blasted Sadass, decided to renounce WMD and terrorism, Lebanon awakened,
Osama’s chiefs cinderized, Osama pleading for a (fake) truce. So it’s all a failure because Osama is still making scratchy tape recordings. Wake up, Bongbrain!
- “The more left-wing the Westerner the more tolerant he is of right-wing Islamic extremism.”
Viewers of the ABC’s Compass program got another glimpse of this notion again last night. In a documentary series on the three Abhamic faiths. The presenter, predictably enough an effete white ‘man’ was ” greatly troubled” by George Bush’s faith, but concluded that Islam’s devotion to God with its five prayers a day put our Western-European once-a-week church attendance to SHAME!
Oh and check-out the ABC’s CONDITIONS for comment. They’re OUTRAGEOUS! ABC Conditions
- “Stopgap” is on the nail, PW! It fits bongoman perfectly.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 01 23 at 03:00 AM • permalink
Five years later, the man responsible for 9/11 hasn’t been apprehended? Good work.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in early 2002, AFAICR. Since then, the left has been campaigning to grant him the rights accorded legitimate POWs, and/or for his release.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 01 23 at 10:42 AM • permalink
- Ens Envy 15
[big gloaty smirk] When they needed a Quasimodo, they cast Lon Chaney Senior. When they needed a Renfield,I said “don’t use Stoop Davy Dave! Yes, he looks like Osama … Yes, he found a nice Afghan-like cave … Yes, he’s got the Arab medieval sounding inflection down pat…
they cast Dwight Frye. When they needed a Gollum, they cast Andy Serkis. And when they needed a believable Osama … heh heh heh, to whom did they turn? Who, in this generation, is more qualified an auteur than I, for the portrayal of villainous insanity? No one, NO ONE, I tell you! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
[/big gloaty smirk]Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 01 23 at 02:19 PM • permalink
- Osama’s diabetic ass is likely dead.
He’s had enough audio recorded over the years to supply a thousand years of [reality-based] Soundforged livin’.
The convenient lack of event relevant video from the master of Brokeback Ghar is the weakest link in the “Osama is alive” schtick.
Some Pakistani kid with a pirated copy of Sound Forge and some VST filters is smirking his islamist ass off at the cognitive dissonance fueled gullibility of the infidel press.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
