This article was linked on Digg’s main page! If you read the comments on Digg (here) it shows a lot of people didn’t know much about Lebanon. This is really good publicity. [Link]

I figured the people living outside of Lebanon would appreciate this. [YouTube]

He can’t be serious!

Quote taken from Naharnet

I think Hillary Clinton is the American version of Aoun. They both are very delusional and they both only care about the presidency.

Whats great about this blog is that it brings different LF members with different opinions all under one roof to discuss and share what they feel is right and wrong with the LF and Lebanese politics in general today. With the recent issue of the two official sites it was clear there were two different opposing opinions on the subject being discussed here by two different writers. Its that sort of thing that makes this blog such a great place.

To be able to bring the different views together in one place this blog will always have to remain a neutral tool. To further enforce this neutrality it wouldn’t be fair to link to only one official LF site and it would be confusing to link to both. This is why starting today none of them will be linked on this blog.

Different writers will always have different opinions but this blog will always remain right in the middle. For all the writers who post on this blog thanks for making it a wonderful place.

Thursday is February 14. It is the anniversary of the day in 2005 when Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated with a massive car bomb. Hariri’s son and political heir, Saad Hariri, blames Syria and its Lebanese backers for the killing.

In what has become an annual ritual, tens of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters are expected to take to the streets in remembrance of Hariri.

Now, with planned demonstrations for Imad Mughniyeh, Syria and Hezbollah have a counterweight that could also become an annual commemoration and even a rivalry with Hariri protesters.

And can you imagine the coincidence that both should fall on the same day?

This article on CNN has made me doubt he is dead. [Link]

Yesterday I received a shocking email I would like to share with everyone. It was sent to me by the “Lebanese Forces Official Website - Technical Manager” and it said the following:

Dear,

Attached is a MEMO from Dr. Samir Geagea confirms that the ONLY official website is the www.lebabese-forces.com.

ALL other websites should be close or join as a sub domain the official website.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Waiting your reply ASAP

Best Regards,
XXNAME REMOVEDXX
Lebanese Forces Official Website - Technical Manager

Attached Memo

It wasn’t the first time I had received an email from someone at Lebanese-Forces.com asking me to shutdown my sites. It seems every time they have a new webmaster or “technical manager” I get the same generic email asking me to shutdown everything. So I replied back with my own generic email saying:

You close down your site, mine was here first.

Usually I don’t get a reply back or if I do its a don’t know if you are joking or serious type of email but this time I got a reply back that shocked me:

Dear,

IT IS A DIRECT ORDER FROM DR. GEAGEA. It is either you follow up the Lebanese Forces and its leader Dr. Geagea or you open another party on your own. We appreciate any effort done for the Lebanese Forces but it is time to be a single unit and it is not a matter of which site was up first. Anyway hope that you can understand that you are hurting the Lebanese Forces like that and not helping as you think.

Hope that you will obey Dr. geagea order.

Regards,

It is a direct order??? Did I enroll in the military and not know about it? And whats this attitude of if you don’t like it go open your open own party? So I replied back the following:

I don’t take orders and this isn’t the military so spare me this mumbo jumbo. Your narrow minded mentality is hurting the Lebanese Forces and u if you don’t believe in freedom and liberty of speech then I think you should go open a party of your own.

I will agree to close my website if you show me just one example where a political party in a democratic country ordered sites supporting their party to shutdown. If you can show me one time where a political party in a democratic country put a muzzle on its supporters then I will shutdown all the websites LebaneseForces.com, SamirGeagea.com, Ouwet.com and LFpics.com.

Instead of trying to support the sites that are supporting the party and instead of trying to promote more people to create websites in support of the party you are going around trying to shut them down? You know how ridiculous you sound?

The next time you contact me it better start off with an apology and end with a strategic plan on online expansion. Its 2008 and the Internet is the future and you are going around trying to take us back to the middle ages. Its about time you wake up and understand what the digital frontier is all about.

Thank you
Mark

I didn’t get an apology back but I did get a glimpse of their strategy and it seems its called “Lets do whatever Tayyar are doing”. Here is the response I got back:

Dear Mark,

Our purpose is to serve the case of the Lebanese Forces our aim in closing other websites is to have a UNIQUE official website not like having 4 or 5 official websites. I will ask u a reverse question:” how many LFPM “tayyar” website they have?!!!” they have a unique website www.tayyar.org” and all tayyar people access this website to get the info and news of tayyar and political news.

In LF we have several websites claiming that they are official. For ex, you have www.samirgeagea.com and samir geagea himself doesn’t want such website because he wants a website for the party and not for himself.

Finally, the main reason behind having one website is that we have a team that is meeting with Dr. geagea once a week to get the info and the strategy and to work on it. Other websites are writing the info that they found important and they are writing their point of view which may be against the view of the Lebanese Forces and the leader Dr. geagea.

It is not a matter of military orders or not it is only to use all power in one place

This guys replies were getting more and more shocking so I replied back with the following:

So because Tayyar don’t have sites supporting them you want the LF to be like them? The Tayyar is who you want to copy? Is this the lowest point in LF history or what?

Are Obama and Hillary Clinton emailing the sites that are supporting them and asking them to close down? Is George Bush sending emails to all the websites that support him and asking them to shutdown? Is Justin Timberlake emailing his fans and telling them to shutdown their websites?

Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wouldn’t send an email out to websites that support him and ask them to shutdown!

I have never and still don’t claim my website is official so I don’t see why you are accusing me of doing so. If Samir Geagea doesn’t want an official website about himself thats his prerogative but that doesn’t mean no one else is allowed to have a site dedicated to him.

If users and websites are writing their point of view and it conflicts with the LF point of view well guess what? Deal with it! Thats why its called their point of view! Its because its theirs and not the LF. Once again I would like to remind you this is not a dictatorship, we are a party that DOES believe in freedom of speech and that means if you agree with it or not, people have the right to state their opinions.

Look at the republicans and democrats in the States, you think that democrats don’t attack democrats or republicans don’t attack republicans? You think there aren’t any republican websites out there that are talking negatively about Bush? Does that make them less republican? Of course it doesn’t!

Notice how I give you examples from one of the most successful democracies in the world but yet you give me examples like Tayyar.org and ideologies from countries like Saudi Arabia and China where freedom of speech is controlled.

I still haven’t gotten a reply back and I don’t think I will. Since when do we use the FPM as an example of what we would like to achieve? After all our online achievements the new technical manager comes and says we want to be like Tayyar.org? You know why he is saying that? It’s because he doesn’t understand the first thing on what needs to be done to create a successful online strategy.

They look at Tayyar.org and they see that they get a lot of traffic so they think how come we aren’t getting a lot of traffic? Is it because our website sucks or is it because we have a strong online presence? It must be because we have a strong online presence, so lets shutdown all the LF websites and keep ours open that way we will get all their traffic.

Where do they find these people? I don’t blame the LF technical manager, its not his fault that he doesn’t know anything about how the Internet works and how it can be used to our advantage. I blame the person who hired him, I blame the people who have been feeding Samir Geagea with incorrect and inaccurate information.

Am I going to shutdown the websites? Not in a million years.

A great article on the worlds most widely known gun. [Link]

It is time to quit you and the Tayyar, and all the servile servants around you. I have done with you and for you the possible and the impossible. I remember happily the days when my words were music to your ears. Gone are the days where no one could possibly listen to you, and learn about you more than I did.

But, first let me remind you of our good old days. Our story dates back from some 27 years ago. We met in Paris and quickly became good friends. All in all, we talked to each other more than 6000 hours. Please calculate with no less than 5 hours per week, each week. I suggest telling our readers that I know who you are and what you are more than any one else.

Remember my General on July 31st 1987 when you called me in catastrophe and asked me to come urgently: Richard MURPHY was just leaving your office. I can never forget the radiation of your face when you told me that the Americans saw you favourably as the future president of Lebanon. In 13 months you were going to be the president. I asked you: how do you want me to call you in one year time: “Mr President” or still “My General”? And your laughter filled our spirits.

You never became president…

Was it Dick MURPHY who created your madness, or just accelerated it? After his third visit in April 1988, he never came back and left you in total disarray, after telling you about a secret note from the C.I.A. explaining that you were “mentally ill”. You became anti-american and very depressed. You saw the “presidential armchair” fading away. I was there, always there to calm down and raise the spirits.

Do our readers know the truth about your “illness”, or more explicitly about your madness? Do our readers know how many times I took you to Dr Assaad Al Ramy at Deir Al Saleeb between 1987 and 1988?

I often feel responsible for having added to your madness more madness. I knew you needed the drug of flattery, and delivered more than allowed.

May God forgive me for having told you crazy things. It was only to boost you mental. It was only to help you gain time against the “disease”. Yes, my General I contributed to your madness. It is I who made you believe that God created you to be “the” saviour. That God had created no one before you who could “reach your shoes”, from Hannibal, to De Gaulle, going through Churchill and General Eisenhower… I was the first to label you NapoleAOUN and made your EgoTherapy go sky-rocketing. I was the first to tell you that you are an extraordinary leader because you “behave out of the common”…do you remember the long evening we had on that?

Each time I called you NapoleAOUN, I could see the smile on your face and the good it did to you. Fool, I was. It did well on the short run. Now I can see the effects of the disaster. After October 1988, you lost your temper and your mind. You were not only mad, you became a madman… who wanted to destroy everything on his way.
Then, many flatterers came and surrounded you. They copied my style and made you believe more and more that you were nearer to God than to any human being.

Now, the presidential elections are in less than three months time. Once again, you will not become president and I am going to tell you why.

I can witness the same expression on your face and in your eyes, as you see the “presidential armchair” running away from you. How can it be, since you were born for it, and that no one else deserves it more than you do?

You are going to miss it one more time especially that the flatterers are in bunches. Many of those who were in 1989 and 1990 are back. Like the good old days, no one dares to speak, but everyone nods and applauds. All are giving you the same message: “you are next to God”. It does good to your megalomania, but not to brain and neurones. Because, at the same time you keep receiving an opposite message: the majority of the parliament doesn’t want you. This increases your madness, and your errors.

So, the flatterers made you believe that if the parliament is not with you, the majority of the population is with you. Vox Populi Vox Dei, isn’t it ? if the people is with you who can be against you. YOU are the sole leader who was created for it?

But, at the same time, the people don’t vote for presidents, and you are opposed by some stupid guys who cannot simply understand that you are the greatest, the exceptional, the admirable, the remarkable, the magnificent General; and this makes you furious. Furious and MAD. Mad and more mistakes. More mistakes and everyone are worrying about your mental health. Now more and more start perceiving the truth about you.

My General,

We had stupid presidents at the top, and we also had unable presidents.

We had traitors at the top, and we had corrupted men at the top.

Please go home and treat yourself. Lebanon cannot bear an additional problem to its complicated problems: a madman at the top.

ADIOS my FRIEND,

Mike HELU

P.S: This message can be released to all parties. Only the General knows my real name.

Due to the events currently taking place in Lebanon, CNN Pipeline has a dedicated channel broadcasting a direct feed of LBC from Lebanon.

Membership to CNN Pipeline costs $2.95 a month but they have a 90 day free trial period. If you are at work, outside of Lebanon or for one reason or another don’t have access to a television, CNN Pipeline is a good solution to staying in touch with the latest news in Lebanon.

http://www.cnn.com/pipeline/

More pictures will be added to this post as soon as they are released. Keep checking the post through out the day. Click on continue reading to see all the pictures. (updated 11:50AM)

(more…)

There are two times of the year when Lebanon flourishes, summer and Christmas. These are the two times of the year when Lebanese and tourists flock to Lebanon.

This year both the summer and Christmas season were ruined by Hezbollah. And they say they want a better Lebanon? No Lebanese would ever want to destroy the countries economy. Hezbollah couldn’t wait until after Christmas to demonstrate?

I just want to show the FPM their flag next to the ones of their allies. Its really sad how the FPM have joined forces with the Syrian and Iranian forces. We spent so much time fighting to get them out of Lebanon and now they want to bring them back in so that their leader Aoun can become president. Selling out the whole country for the presidency, what a great plan. I am glad yesterdays demonstration was a failure, it goes to show them who the true Lebanese majority are.

So Hezbollah and FPM are against American influence in Lebanon but they are fine with Iranian and Syrian influence?

For you FPM readers out there I would suggest you read up on Iran a bit just so you get a small preview of what Lebanon will turn into if Hezbollah take control. If you don’t, you might be in for the shock of your life.

Obesity is a disease, there is no shame in it. Looking at the picture above it looks like someone needs to lose some weight. Since we care about how the General looks like, here is an easy to follow “swap system diet” which we are recommending. The swap system diet involves swapping unhealthy items with healthy ones. Here are a few examples:

Coffee w/milk, sweetener instead of “coffee house” latte
How often: 5 days a week
Lose in a year: 18 - 20 lbs.

Whole grain cereal w/skim milk instead of a bran muffin
How often: 3x a week
Lose in a year: 14 - 15 lbs.

Mustard instead of mayo on sandwiches
How often: 3x a week
Lose in a year: 12 - 13 lbs.

Turkey sandwich w/lettuce and tomato instead of cheeseburger and fries
How often: 3x a week
Lose in a year: 8 - 10 lbs.

Baked potato w/sour cream instead of french fries
How often: 3x a week
Lose in a year: 10 lbs.

Diet soda instead of regular soda
How often: 7 days a week
Lose in a year: 25 lbs.

Piece of fruit instead of a candy bar
How often: 5 days a week
Lose in a year: 10 - 12 lbs.

With these minor changes in the General’s diet he should be back to shape in no time.

An Israeli pop song about Nasrallah. Contains strange lyrics like “you have lice on your bread” and phat flowing lyrics like “yalla Nasrallah we will screw you inshalla” and “we will send you back to allah with all the hezbollah”