Brian C. Ledbetter's blog | Snapped Shot

Tim Kaine—formerly Governor of Virginia, and currently head of the Democratic National Committee—pictured in a meeting with Barack Obama at the White House.

Far be it from me to point out that this is perhaps one of the most desperate "Gimme a Job" faces I've ever seen.

[ Flickr Link ]

President Barack Obama has lunch with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine in the Oval Office Private Dining Room, March 16, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Jumping at shadows?

It seems that somewhere, somebody had the audacity to charge Reuters with photoshopping the above photograph. Reuters has officially responded with the all-clear, and doesn't seem to grasp exactly what the complaint is about:

The picture was not altered. Here is a blown up section of the portion you mentioned.

Moreover, I can’t imagine why a news organization would try to change a picture to make it LESS dramatic: GBU Editor

I don't think you need to be reminded, but it was Reuters who got in trouble many moons ago for trying to pass off a MORE dramatic picture as news. (That incident is also what led to the birth of Snapped Shot, but I digress...)

To clarify for the humble GBU Editor, the accusation that is being levied against Reuters is that you are whitewashing the Evil Zionist Oppressors' crimes by photoshopping out their brutal police batons. That you're helping to improve Israel's image in the world.

A charge that if understood in context, would be the greatest comedy act in the history of all time.

Good job on debunking the myth, Reuters. Hopefully, your next act will be to actually balance your stories out for once.

A trip (yuk yuk) back into the 60's, courtesy our non-aligned Axis of Evil partners:

Evil Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas dictator, meets Evil Raul Castro, Cuba dictator. It's a Technicolor® sensation!

Feel free to toss in your own ideas yonder.

"Is interwebz over here?"

Speaking as someone who has a vested interest in electronic Iran, I can't wait to see how this whole thing shakes out. Until then, I'm just quaaaaaking in my boots, maaan.

Via Arutz Sheva:

(IsraelNN.com) Iran has called for the launching of a “media intifada” against Israel, and the first results are apparently visible online, in the form of a Hamas Facebook group. Other groups and sites formed as part of the 'intifada' may have been removed or hacked.

According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center's latest briefing, a conference titled National and Islamic Solidarity for the Future of Palestine was held in Tehran on February 28. It was headed by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who gave a typically belligerent anti-Israeli speech.

The conference's participants were a particularly nasty group of terrorists with a decades-old record of murdering civilians: Khaled Mashaal, the chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau; Ramadan Shalah, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group; and Ahmed Jibril, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) has apparently thrown down the gauntlet on the Senate floor yesterday against the globaloney warming cult—And he couldn't have possibly selected a more humorous illustration:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) attacked former Vice President Al Gore on the Senate floor Monday, calling climate change “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” and claiming that Gore is now “running for cover.”

The “hoax” line is an Inhofe standby, but he raised the level of attack on Monday.

In front of the backdrop of a blown up Weekly Standard cover featuring Gore, Inhofe railed on the former vice president.

"After weeks of the global warming scandal, the world’s first climate billionaire is running for cover. Yes, I’m talking about Al Gore," Inhofe charged. "He’s under siege these days. The credibility of the IPCC is eroding. The EPA’s endangerment finding is collapsing. And belief that global warming is leading to catastrophe is evaporating. Gore seems to be drowning in a sea of his own global warming illusions nevertheless. He’s desperately trying to keep global warming alarmism alive today."

Inhofe also floated a political conspiracy theory focused on Gore.He cited a secret "high-level meeting with all [Gore's] global alarmists," called a recent Gore op-ed in the New York Times a "sure-fire sign of desperation" and compared Gore to an ostrich.

I'm hearing from Gateway Pundit and Jihad Watch that the leadership of Hamas has declared today to be a "day of rage" against some random unforgivable insult to al-Aqsa Mosque (the Temple Mount).

We here at Snapped Shot will be on the alert for any wire hilarity that ensues, of course!

Warnings of widespread violence in Jerusalem on Monday proved to be unneeded, but police say the real test will be Tuesday.

Hamas announced a “day of rage” in response to the dedication of the restored Hurva synagogue in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, police said. Large forces will continue to be deployed throughout the city, with 3,000 police and border police officers stationed in East Jerusalem and neighboring villages.

Limitations on access to Muslim prayers on Temple Mount will continue for the fifth day. Members of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee are set to hold a procession in the east of the city on Wednesday. Jerusalem on Monday was tense but quiet. Around noon, Palestinians began throwing stones near the Mount of Olives cemetery, but no injuries were reported.

At 6 P.M., scores of youths hurled stones at Border Police troops from the Palestinian side of the Qalandiya crossing, north of Jerusalem. The youths were dispersed, and the crossing closed.

Update: Jameel is tracking the Day of Rage over at the Muqata.

Update 2: Soccer Dad writes to correct me—These protests are being waged over the restoration Hurva synagogue, as mentioned in the article above. I mentioned the Temple Mount at the top due to that being where most of the action seems to be. (Must be time for me to grab more coffee!)

The protests are, of course, as astroturfed as ever!

Celebrate Diversity!

Muslims want Islamic cemeteries in every canton

An umbrella group for Swiss Muslims says they should be able to be buried “with dignity” and is therefore calling for Islamic cemeteries in every Swiss canton.

Farhad Afshar, president of the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland, told the Sunday newspaper Sonntag he was preparing a legal case concerning freedom of religion.

He said that following the Bernese commune of Köniz’s recent rejection of a separate burial ground for Muslims, a legal ruling was necessary so that “the next time someone says no [to an Islamic cemetery] they are violating freedom of religion”.

Islamic law says Muslims should not be buried with those of a different faith – something already possible in some Swiss cities, for example Zurich, Bern, Basel and Geneva.

The Muslim community in Switzerland accounts for about 4.5 per cent of the population. Most Muslim immigrants came from the former Yugoslavia and Turkey. The community includes up to 100 nationalities.

Far be it from me to point out that by demanding such national changes, Afshar ignores the Federal nature of the Swiss government completely. Which, of course, is a complete affront to Switzerland's culture and history.

Illustrating once again that "Diversity" is a one-way street.

If that headline doesn't get your attention, I don't have any idea what will:

A Nazi sympathiser living in Rome came up with the idea and it was quickly seized upon by officials in Berlin who saw it as the ideal opportunity to keep up with Allied activity in the city.

The plan is revealed in MI5 reports held at the National Archives in Kew and which have now been declassified - and it comes just days after other files revealed how Germany had also tried to infiltrate the Boy Scouts.

Operation Georgian Convent as it was called involved the purchase of a building in Rome by Michael Kedia, a Russian anti communist Nazi sympathiser from Georgia (Russian Republic of) who was also known to British intelligence.

According to the documents at Kew the idea gathered pace in the Autumn of 1943 as the Allies advanced up through Italy and the Germans were preparing to pull out of Rome.

MI5 was tipped off about the plan by Giuseppe Dosi, an Italian policeman who was acting as an informant to the British intelligence service and his report is in the file.

It reads how a "....plan was started whereby the immunity of the Vatican buildings in Rome was to be exploited to the advantage of the German Intelligence Service.

"The plan (involved the)...set up a Georgian cloister in Rome under Vatican protection and among the monks introduce agents who were to keep contact with German intelligence."

Dosi's report added how two rooms within the cloister were to "be set aside for the use of the agents for storage of transmitters, batteries and any other secret material."

Officials in Germany thought the idea of agents posing as monks and priests in a cloister would be the perfect cover for them and enable them to covertly carry out spying work.

Weasel Zippers has concrete illustrated proof of why Barack Obama is destined to be a one-term wonder.

Heh!