MAJOR RETRACTION/CORRECTION: The man was identified as merely having fallen and being "hurt" in a caption running with this photo in DigitalJournalist magazine.

It appears the entirety of the story must be retracted. The assumption that the fallen man was playing a corpse is simply incorrect.

I apologize to Tyler Hicks and all readers for jumping the gun too early on this.

Original/edited post follows beyond the jump.

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Posted by: Ace at 02:52 PM | Comments (102)
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You would almost certainly be better off if you just resisted the temptation to click on this.

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Posted by: Ace at 02:06 PM | Comments (23)
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Augean Stables thought he had good evidence of Hezbollywood death fakery-- a picture showing a "corpse" under a shroud appearing to be sitting up, and getting ready to get a bite for lunch.

Upon further review, he noticed the man was in almost the exact same position in numerous photos, suggesting not a live man sitting up, but a dead one stiffening up.

In a move that editors from Reuters called "absolutely stunning," he presented proof documenting his error, confessed an error in judgment, and apologized for misleading his readers.

Apologizing for a big error is like sex. It only hurts the first time. After that it becomes merely embarrassing and slightly distasteful.

Again, just like sex.

A lot of the MSM needs to lose its apology virginity, and fast.

Posted by: Ace at 01:44 PM | Comments (11)
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Allah tucked this at the end of his post. It should be moved up top or to its own post.

Dan Riehl called shenangans on this pic a few days ago. I didn't link him because it seemed premature-- he had a decent hunch, but only a hunch.

Not a hunch anymore.

I don't know if it's p-shopped or simply staged (more likely the latter), but for reasons unknown this Hezbollah dude is aiming his AK-47 at... burning tires in a garbage dump.

Because sometimes they come back to life, you know.

And Speaking of Reuters... They're no more credible than their former star-freelancer Adnan Hajj.

Reuters, Take One: Heartless Israelis bomb Lebanese funeral procession

Reuters, Take Two: Not-Quite-So-Heartless Israelis bomb completely different area of town at approximately the same time a funeral procession is occurring

Reuters has corrected without apology its earlier story that the IDF strafed a funeral procession and updated the report to state that the bombs struck a village at the same time the funeral was taking place, adding that "the air strike was not in the immediate vicinity of the funeral."

"Without apology." I like that. It's not like they accused the Israelis of anything serious for which they owe an apology or anything.

I really wish FoxNews had used some of my criticism of foreign stringers, and Reuters' credulous, Mulder-like "I want to believe" attitude towards their far-fetched tales.

Update: Riehl World takes a bit of vengeance through a parody, ironically enough created through Photoshop.

Posted by: Ace at 01:05 PM | Comments (8)
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Slublog sent me all those photos of the toys. It was an amazing catch, completely damning when you laid them all out one after the other.

And he dumped it in my lap. Just gave it to me, to post on my blog, with just a "hat tip to Slublog." I get 5000 hits off his find; he gets, maybe, three.

So, I basically told him, in about these words, "Are you a mental patient? You've practically got the whole post written, why give it to me? You got rocks in your head, son? Put it up on your own blog and get some traffic, moron."

Well, he he did his post. And then, after getting linked by me, and then by Allah, calling his post "Brilliant," and then probably by lots of people, he seems to have gotten some hits here and there.

So: that's the kind of guy I am. I turn down great stories, so as not to take advantage of the clinically insane.

Rule Zero: Don't argue in other people's comments.

Rule Double Zero: Give away crap links that you found off Fark and stuff. Never give away your own damn work. Especially if it's really, really good.

Posted by: Ace at 12:46 PM | Comments (12)
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Now here's the sort of political discussion that makes sense to me! They're not talking about abstractions and pie-in-the-sky predictions and numbers and "facts." They're just debating something that actually matters in my life-- whether this guy over here is fat or not.

The pony-tail guy seems to be a liberal, so I'm inclined to disagree with him that the other guys is fat. On the other hand, I'm not sure if the Fat Guy has all of his facts in order, either.

Also over there: Beckel, Caddel admit the fringe is taking over the Democratic party; the DU'ers solve the Mystery of the Photoshopped Picture (Adnan Hajj is an IDF plant); and another suspicious photo from Lebanon. Plus George Galloway.

Basically, a lot of stuff over there.

Thanks to Hobgoblin for tipping me to The Greatest. Debate. Eveh.

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (8)
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On the tank stuck in the minefield...

Sue Donhim, being snarky:

The tank may be stuck, but it's still killing 3 Lebanese per minute according to Al-Reuters. ...our investigative journalist in the field is reporting that 2 of those 3 Lebanese being killed per minute are little babies. Little babies with kittens.

Then Sue later, quoting the New York Times/IHT, being serious:

Daibis insisted on locking the door to his house. His sister, who was found earlier, had described to rescuers in a pleading tone where he was. He was carried more than 800 meters, or a half- mile, over the jumble of industrial trash to the center of town, where a few ambulances were driving survivors out. A kitten mewed from a bombed-out building.

The way they... surround a story.

With adorable kittens.

Meowing antiemitic epithets at the Zionist Aggressors who have occupied their litter boxes.

Look, war is bad. There's no getting around that. And the suffering of the Lebanese is a legitimate story.

But... give me a break. Mewling kittens? Can they maybe lighten up with the stuffed lions, soot-covered Big Wheels, and collateral-damage kittens?

In fiction, they call that sort of thing the "telling detail," the one small detail that suggests others, and evokes an emotional response or a mood. That's fine in fiction -- which is a medium designed to manipulate emotion. If it's not manipulating emotion, the fiction isn't doing it's job.

And it has its place in reportage as well -- to a degree. But reportage, unlike fiction, is not supposed to be chiefly concerned with creating an emotional response in a reader through well-chosen details, is it? Isn't it supposed to focus on the, you know, facts? The truly important who/what/when/where/why facts, not the trivial detalis like a mewling kitten that invoke a disproportionate response in the reader's emotions?

(Like I did that? Yeah, me too.)

This must be the "storytelling" school of "news" promoted by CNN head Jonathan Klein. Storytelling, not reporting. Adapting the techniques and artifices of fiction to manipulate readers in news reports.

Meanwhile...

I think too much can be made of this, but it's newsworthy. Even if it is probably just a mistake.

Maybe the caption to he photo is just incorrectly phrased. But what the caption says, and what the photo seems to depict, is rescuers digging two bodies out from the wreckage of a bombed building.

And those bodies, it says, were already wrapped in blankets.

Before the airstrike, apparently.

I don't know what this means; I'd just first assume the caption is wrong as far as the timing of the wrapping of the bodies.

Still. As the story is actually reported-- we have people digging bodies out of a wrecked building who were already dead and wrapped tightly in blankets before the IDF got there.

Confederate Yankee wonders if the Israelis hit a "body warehouse" of some kind, used by Hezbollah to sprinkle bodies around when needed. I doubt the IDF could possibly get so lucky.

Besides, what need does Hezbollah have of planting bodies when they've already got them there kittens?

Posted by: Ace at 11:49 AM | Comments (19)
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I'm a bit late on this, and yeah, it's kind of a mixed picture out there, but I'll take my cowbell where I can get it.

The federal deficit will register $260 billion this year, the lowest in four years, reflecting a strong economy and resulting growth in tax revenue, congressional analysts said Friday.

The estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is well below its earlier predictions and also below the $296 billion White House estimate less than a month ago.

Better-than-expected revenues are driving the deficit down from last year's $318 billion figure and far below the record $413 billion posted in 2004.

At $260 billion, it would be the lowest since the $158 billion figure in 2002, the first deficit following four years of surpluses.

The deficit picture is even better when measured against the size of the economy, which is the comparison economists think is most important.

"At 2 percent of gross domestic product, the 2006 deficit would be smaller than the deficit recorded in the past three years — 3.5 percent in 2003, 3.6 percent in 2004 and 2.6 percent in 2005," said the CBO report.

And the Fed has paused in raising interest rates, which is a good-news, bad-news thing, but let's focus on the positive.

Click on pic for Cowbell theme.

"And... can you get three gold-plated diapers for my friends, too?"

H/t to Lorie at Wizbang!

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 AM | Comments (16)
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I'm burying the old post past the jump, because I've decided it's too bitchy and inside-blogball. I shouldn't have put it up, and I feel like an ass for doing so.

So I'll make this an open post.

But as I can't just bury the evidence, I'll leave it past the jump.

My only excuse is four hours sleep, two sleeping pills, and two bottles of beer before 9 AM. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:47 AM | Comments (65)
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So far, it's 0% to 0%, with 0 precincts reporting.

MUST CREDIT ACE.

I'm on this like a bastard. When I know more, so will you.

But seriously, Lieberman's website was hacked, which you knew, but what you might not have know is that Kos is claiming it wasn't hacked -- Lieberman just didn't pay the bill.

You know. Those people. Tight with the dollar, if you know what I'm sayin'.

Posted by: Ace at 10:29 AM | Comments (36)
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