BLOG OF THE WEEK:<P><br>Little Green Footballs

[fotos: top:LGF, middle:from LGF thread bottom: arellis49]
by Little Baby Ginn
--notes by mondoreb

This week we take a look at that thorn in the side of the Left, the source of uncounted vapor trails of venom at DailyKOS and the inspiration of Leftard fantasies in suburban basements across America: Little Green Footballs.

With a total of almost 4.5 million comments and growing, Little Green Footballs is a tour de force in the political blog world. Its originator, Charles Johnson, single handedly built a place for posters to not only get the latest news on the war on terror but to also comment in a community that sometimes gets raucous but never fails to inform.

Famous for being instrumental in exposing CBS’ Dan Rather and Mary Mapes’ attempt to discredit President Bush during the 2004 elections with the famous “Killian” documents, Little Green Footballs, or LGF, has been called a racist hate monger site, rabidly anti-Muslim.

The “throbbing memo” was the technical piece of evidence that showed quite succinctly that the “memos” supposedly written “18 August 1973” by the late Lt. Colonel Jerry B. Killian were an exact match to Johnson’s Microsoft Word Version 2004.

Bush Guard Documents: Forged
Thur, Sep 9, 2004 at 10:24:36 am PST
2004.
I opened Microsoft Word, set the font to Microsoft’s Times New Roman, tabbed over to the default tab stop to enter the date “18 August 1973,” then typed the rest of the document purportedly from the personal records of the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.
And my Microsoft Word version, typed in 2004, is an exact match for the documents trumpeted by CBS News as “authentic.”

Little Green Footballs tries to be ahead of the curve in news and opinion pieces posted on the blog. The majority of those will never be found on the pages of the MSM nor on the big news networks. LGF has become a watchdog of the MSM, a prime example being the exposure of the altered photos Reuters had published from a freelance photographer based in the Middle East.

Faux photography: The Rueters' pix.. The photographer, Adnan Hajj, had submitted photos to Reuters for a period of over ten years. LGF found that two photographs showed evidence of manipulation at the time during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict. CJ posted the photos online; the posters at LGF had the opportunity to weigh in on the subject. Reuters subsequently admitted that the photos in question did show manipulation and that they would no longer use Hajj’s work. LGF brought into question Retuers' credibility several more times when it took a closer, more stringent look at the “news” being sent out over the Reuter wires.

Synergy in action. Posters play an important part in submitting new stories or alerting Johnson to what has transpired in their part of the world. The comments themselves are a reading post of Silent America. Claims of racism at LGF abound. But like many Leftist howls, they don't hold up. If the Left produced porn, it would be a movie of Liberals constructing a "new man", i.e., one that would deny its humanity. LGF, by pointing out human foibles earns the fury of the Left and its favorite pejorative: "racist".

The posts at LGF voice concerns over the eerie parallels between the 1930’s pre-WWII and the events that transpire today. They examine the increasing spread of Islamism through various parts of the world and the governments who give into their demands rather than standing up to them. Religion is not a race. To look at the religion of Islam with a critical eye is not racism. "Racism" is a favorite cry whenever one disagrees with what is being said.

Israel.Israel is our most important ally in the Middle East. Ahmadinejad and Iran have spoken, written, and are on tape verbalizing their hatred of Israel, their goal to push Israel and all Zionists into the sea, their attempts to sugarcoat the Holocaust. LGF is pro-Israel which means that the truths about those who seek Israel’s demise are being exposed on an almost daily basis.

Mainstream Media. LGF also exposes the bias and current erosion of professionalism of the MSM. The fact that LGF has caught the MSM time and time again in acts of sheer laziness and the ability to skew and/or slant a story especially in the matter of the war on terror and Islamism.

LGF: A Closed Shop? One reads claims that LGF never allows new registrations. This is most certainly not true. Claims that a poster will be banned if they disagree with the current meme are not valid. What isn't tolerated are posters who are abusive, use certain types of crude language, or call for genocide for violence or genocide. [note: In the last two months, there have been at least 15 Open Registration periods.]

The Disaffected. If no one reads your site, you never make any enemies; but you never make a difference either. It's a measure of LGF's success that there are at least two anti-LGF sites. A quick look at their posts reveal that without LGF, they would cease to exist. I would have added DailyKOS to the mix, but they're anti-mainstream Amercan, an not strictly anti-LGF.

Et Sumus Minora Greenus Footballeus All in all, LGF never fails to inform. Like any large forum, either in life or on the internet, some posts are insightful, at times outrageous and occasionally banal. The posters are quite adept at pointing out the bizarre, the hypocritical, the ironic, and sometimes the obvious. The community is diverse. There are no pledges to be made such as “you have to be a Democrat.” Free speech is encouraged: it’s a great place to hone one’s debating skills. If you want to be taken seriously, be ready to submit proof; it's not enough to "feel". Posters who think "feelings" are a substitute for reason and logic should save themselves the trouble and head over to the Huffington Post, where that viewpoint is demonstrated daily.

At times it’s not for the faint of heart and a quiver of verbal arrows should be in reach. But the majority of the time it’s a place where one can share in discussions over topics that affect the U.S. now and in the future; where one can voice their opinion; where the stories that the MSM should be reporting will be posted then dissected and at times, hysterically fun.