Redstate

Posted at 1:27pm on May 15, 2008 Touchy

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Speaking at ceremonies to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel, President Bush made the following statement regarding the fight against terrorism:

. . . "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is--the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

This relatively banal statement--banal because it has been repeated in some form or another by Western leaders ever since it became indubitably clear that Neville Chamberlain did not quite have things right at Munich--has caused people to lose their ever-loving minds. Barack Obama is generally even-keeled, but . . . well . . . read the following overreaction:

"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Paranoia Will Destroy Ya — Comments (88)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:33pm on Nov. 28, 2007 Oh, For Heaven's Sake

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Another day, another bizarre pronouncement from Hugo Chavez:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday CNN may have been instigating his murder when the U.S. TV network showed a photograph of him with a label underneath that read "Who killed him?"

The caption appeared to be a production mistake -- confusing a Chavez news item with one on the death of a football star. The anchor said "take the image down" when he realized.

But Chavez called for a probe in an interview on state television, where he repeatedly reviewed a tape of the broadcast, questioning why the unconnected photograph and wording were left on screen for several seconds.

"I want the state prosecutor to look into bringing a suit against CNN for instigating murder in Venezuela," he said. "... undoubtedly it is part of the psychological warfare."

Would that CNN--and for that matter, actual agencies of the national security apparatus of the United States--were that good at psychological warfare. Chavez cannot, of course, be considered a viable case study in the effects of American psy-op campaigns. He is too susceptible to even the merest hint of insult or even the slightest error concerning any report about him.

However, for those who might argue that this story is unworthy of mention, I would posit that Chavez's extreme overreaction concerning the mistaken CNN story can give rise to an immensely fun parlor game to be played in newsrooms across America. Various media outlets can broadcast or print "erroneous" reports concerning the Venezuelan dictator and then pop popcorn, sit back and wait for the inevitable blowup. They can spice things up by placing bets as to what the general or specific nature of the blowup can be. My interested-in-economics self would even advocate the creation of an online futures market to track Chavezista emotional meltdowns. Fun could be had by all!

Posted in Foreign Affairs | Hugo Chavez | Paranoia Will Destroy Ya — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »