BBC World cut live this morning from pictures of ruined Lebanese villages and their - if the word has any meaning at all - terrorised occupants, to coverage of Tony Blair's "arc of extremism" speech in Los Angeles, in which he called for a countervailing "alliance of moderation" in the Middle East. It was a rather jolting edit.
The speech itself is an odd effort; its espousal of values no sensible person would disagree with undercut by Blair's usual unwillingness to offend his sponsors, even where he ventures into trade and climate change policy, where Blair-style coded messages have surely run their course.
He laments the fact that "moderate" elements of Hamas could not prevail after the Palestinian elections, but has nothing to say about whether certain powers should have done more to seek out those elements (say, by talking to them) rather than cutting them off at the knees; demands that Syria "come in to the international community" but has nothing to say about the US refusal to even talk to Syria over the crisis in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Neal Gabler's contention on Salon that " Hollywood may shun Mel Gibson for his anti-Semitic ravings, but the right wing in George Bush's increasingly hate-filled America won't," might seem odd too. But it appears to be fairly close to the mark. Some of the people who scream bloody murder at any criticism of Israeli policy seem rather restrained in their criticism of Gibson. They seem keener on Israel than they are on actual Jews.
A writer on the leading conservative site NewsMax complains that "Mel’s enemies will never cut him a break. Their real goal is to discredit ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ and that is why their propaganda machine is in full gear." The Conservative Voice finds far more scorn for an Anti-Defamation League spokesman, who "sober, seems much more hateful than Mr. Gibson. drunk." And a conservative church school director urges forgiveness for "a guy who's been very prominent the past couple of years in religion, in Christian circles." And who happens to be a bigoted thug. And of course, there's the Jews-killed-Jesus crowd.
Christopher Hitchens is having none of it, though. Gibson is, he says, "sick to his empty core with Jew-hatred."
These just in from our Creepy Denial Correspondent: Powerline eagerly buys the evidence-free assertion that the building in Qana, didn't collapse (resulting in the "accidental killing of civilian human shields, along with terrorists") until hours after the Israeli airstrike. One of the fun-loving guys at our own Sir Humptys explains the victims therefore "shouldn't have been in the building." And LGFWatch notes the response of one of the LGF lizards to the depressing news that 15 of the Qana victims were physically or mentally handicapped children.
LGFWatch finds a similarly swiveled-eyed conspiracy alleging that the "shock value" of the Qana aftermath was contrived by evil MSM photographers, presumably working with the terrorists. And various people see all kinds of crazy shit in a grainy aerial video released by the Israeli government.
And a really astonishing smear, using deceptively-edited video, from the loons at Powerline. Again. Presumably it's all the MSM's fault or something.
Lebanon.Profile expresses fear that it has all made Hezbollah much, much stronger than it was before:
Israel is asking Lebanese to turn against Hezbollah. You know, we were already against Hezbollah. Anybody who's read a Lebanese newspaper in the last two years would know that. We were even more vocal in our opposition to Hezbollah during the first two days of the conflict. Many Hezbollah supporters considered turning against their party then.
No one is talking like that any more.
Is it time to stop pretending Don Brash is the leader of the National Party? After the extraordinary behaviour of his deputy towards him in Parliament yesterday, maybe it is. The Herald story reports on the Parliamentary aftermath of an apparently rather chaotic day or two of dealings on the matter of a Green Party motion of censure and demand for an apology from Taito Philip Field, which National blocked:
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen created uproar among National MPs when he claimed Dr Brash had agreed with Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons for the motion to be introduced.
This led Dr Brash and Mr Brownlee to simultaneously leap to their feet to object.
However, Mr Brownlee half-pushed, half-waved Dr Brash back to his chair.
He what?
No Right Turn has more in a post headed Shooting themselves in the foot and John Armstrong also decrees National the big loser from this strange sequence of events.
I wonder if Labour's extended season of pratfalls and potholes is on the wane and National's is beginning. If that's the case, I think National only has itself to blame. How long it will continue with its promise to keep raising pointless motions of no confidence against the Speaker is anyone's guess, but it might be best advised to cut its losses.
Tumeke has more on Simon Power's misguided attempt to have it shut down, including correspondence between Power and a disappointed National supporter.
And, finally, a Daily Show clip in which Jon Stewart explains the Bush position on Lebanon: ""He doesn't want the killing to stop until he's sure it will stop. So there will be more killing until the president is convinced there will be no more killing. Or … everyone runs out of people."