#
Outgoing CIA head Michael Hayden has nothing but good things to say about torture. Like so many other American "leaders" we've seen over the past eight years, he belongs at the Hague.
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
#
Chris D. writes, "Everyone in the same boat as the Gazans, who have lived in fear of such an assault and are quite possibly next on the hit parade, are eerily silent on the media
"While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Eugene V. Debbs
front. More disturbing than the lack of emotion or action on the part of the Western world is the sudden silence and stillness of the Middle East, the people most directly affected." ... Continue reading ...
[ Unknown News ]
#
For what's at least the third time in the past few weeks, the Israeli military has struck at a United Nations facility in Gaza, this time a food warehouse. The resulting fires destroyed thousands of tons of food.
[ The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland) ]
#
International orders for Israeli-grown produce have plummeted. How un-sad.
[ YnetNews.com ]
#
The Bush-Cheney administration has filed papers to challenge last week's court order that it follow the law by preserving emails. By my reading of this coverage, they seem to be objecting again to any judicial oversight involving the untold millions of emails the White House illegally deleted (which the media consistently refers to as "lost") as well as objecting to last week's court ruling that more recent emails be preserved and electronic devices be searched. Like leopards don't change their spots, Bush-Cheney et al remain outlaws to the end.
[ Associated Press ]
#
It was breathtaking at first, to see how virtually every Bush-Cheney appointee didn't just have a track record that made him or her wrong for the job, but many or most were adamantly opposed to the job's existence. Remember John Bolten, for example -- the UN ambassador best known for screaming (a quality you really don't want in a diplomat) and for his opposition to the very existence of the United Nations. After a while, though, with so many horrendous psychotics installed in control of so many government functions, it stopped being breathtaking and just became routinely awful. If you'd like to re-live the agony, ThinkProgress has prepared a list of the 43rd President's 43 worst appointments.
[ ThinkProgess ]
#
Like most sane Americans, Elizabeth Holtzman is calling for investigations into the Bush-Cheney administration's flamboyant abuses of power. Her perspective ought to carry some serious weight, though -- she was a key player in bringing down Richard Nixon for the crimes of Watergate, which by comparison to the Bush-Cheney administration seems trivial indeed.
[ The Nation ]
#
In the settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging price-fixing by major department store chains, they're required to give away free cosmetics and perfume on Tuesday. Freebies await you at any Bloomingdale's, Dillard's, Herberger's, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue or Younkers store. Of course, the cost of the freebies won't come anywhere near the profits made from the price-fixing, and nobody admits guilt, and they'll all be colluding on prices again by Wednesday morning. It's one of the things that almost certainly won't change when Obama takes power -- corporate criminals can get away with anything, everything, time after time.
[ Star-Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) ]
#
YouTube is responding quicker and more obediently to DMCA take-down requests. And now, if they get three take-down requests for material you're posted, you're banned -- like this guy, a film critic-blogger who posted brief movie clips on YouTube to make his points. It sure looks to me like the blogger is in the right. Maybe it's not reasonable to expect a huge outfit like YouTube to go to the mat over fair use, but YouTube is Google and Google can afford to fight the good fight now and then -- little guys sure can't afford to do that. And now, YouTube is silencing the sound track on some submitted videos. Color me ... disappointed isn't quite the right word. Saddened, but hardly surprised.
[ Ars Technica ]
#
The lawyer for shoe-tosser Muntazer al-Zaidi says it's clear from his medical records that he has been tortured, and he's been allowed no visitors for more than three weeks. A.P. reports that al-Zaidi was allowed a visit from his brother -- and a party thrown by jail guards -- for his birthday on Friday.
[ United Press International ]
#
Apparently, it wasn't just good luck when that Airbus plane that ditched in the Hudson River stayed afloat long enough for everyone on board to escape. Airbus planes, and only Airbus planes, are equipped with a special switch just for ditching, that seals numerous
"If this child in the body of a man were named Putin or Castro or Kim, Americans would get it. If they were observing the country from the perspective of Zimbabwe, instead of the other way around, then they would get it. They can understand the notion of some foreign thug who means to do harm to our country. They get the idea, in other places, of a domestic thug who seeks to plunder his own country. They just can't imagine it happening here. And, therefore, they don't see that it just has."
[ David Michael Green ]
"I'm sorry, but if we don't have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years -- and nearly everyone has taken Obama's remarks to mean that we won't -- this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don't face any consequences if they abuse their power."
[ Paul Krugman ]
"Drug-company corruption of American medicine is of course not news. What is news is that such corruption has become so egregious, so transparent, and so embarrassing that the New England Journal of Medicine, perhaps the most influential American medical journal, is now stating that "drastic action is essential to preserve the integrity of medical science and practice and to justify public trust."
[ Bruce E. Levine ]
"An epitaph for Bush's years in office? He took what worked and broke it. He took what didn't work and made it worse."
[ Sasha Abramsky ]
valves and ventilation ports, specifically to keep the plane afloat longer.
[ Newsday ]
#
Roy LaHood, the Republican named by Barack Obama to be Secretary of Transportation, sure looks like one lousy choice. Transportation matters a lot, and it matters a lot to me -- I take the city bus, don't drive, and it never ceases to amaze me how awful the American infrastructure is for getting from one city to another, if you're not driving. LaHood seems to bring no ideas, no concerns, and certainly no imagination to the gig. Looks to me like he's your guy, if all you want is more and wider freeways.
[ World Changing ]
#
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that Obama smells a little like Bush, but that if he "does not obey the orders of the empire, they will kill him". Hugo Chavez has some pretty big faults, but he tends toward speaking the truth when he's speaking about America, doesn't he?
[ Reuters News Agency ]
#
Here's a visual aid for envisioning the present state of the auto industry -- unsold cars stockpiled at a Nissan facility in England. Meanwhile, Circuit City is about to become a thing of the past, and the state of California is going to stop welfare payments, student grants, and tax refunds.
[ The Guardian (London, UK) ]
#
Bank of America asked, so of course they get another twenty billion dollars, just like that.
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
#
Maybe Steve Jobs at Apple has been just a tad too secretive?
[ The Daily Beast ]
#
I live in Madison, Wisconsin, often described as America's most liberal city, but The Road to Fallujah, a documentary about the US war crimes against the Iraqi city of Fallujah, is probably far too honest to be booked at any theater here.
[ Variety ]
Please send your news tips, comments, and criticisms to <unknownnews at inbox.com>. If that address ever fails, check our contact page for our alternate email addresses.
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports that "a number of ordinary IMF staffers, as well as some tax experts, said the rules are laid out clearly in the quarterly notices the IMF sends its employees, along with the checks they are supposed to use to pay their taxes."
I'm an accountant. While this is a mistake an average person might make, it is NOT a
mistake a Secretary of the Treasury should have on his record. He is NOT acceptable to
me. He is not the only fish in the financial experts sea. Obama should catch somebody
else and toss Geithner back. Congress should have higher standards than whether Geithner
was trying to cheat on taxes.
SirJ
Absolutely agreed. This is something that wouldn't matter at all for a Bush nominee, but for Obama we should expect and demand higher standards.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/20/2009:
It doesn't seem to matter at all for Obama candidates either.
I personally expect Obama to commit almost every mistake listed in the article, based on everything I've heard from him and his aides so far. Indeed, he wouldn't have to move much in his proclaimed policies at all to qualify as 'McCain Lite'. Or even 'Bush Lite'. I hope to God he's better than the impression he's left with me so far!
It strikes me that imprisoning as many citizens as you possibly can is yet another way to artificially reduce unemployment rates...so I wonder if anyone's performed a study which not only does away with the numbers fudging the politicians have done with rates in past decades, but also recalculates what the real unemployment rate would be if we hadn't started jailing everyone we could over a joint?
#Day 22 of the Israeli massacre of Palestinians & the Israeli unilateral ceasefire:
OK, it is Day 22 and Israel's Foreign Minister Livni is in Washington DC doing -- how can I put it politely -- doing her bit in Israel's PR campaign, e.g. at the National Press Club. One thing was especially nauseating. She indicated that for the last eight years they took a lot, but held back themselves. SO, let's take a quick look at Israel's actions during the Bush Jr. presidency, the last 8 years. Here's a hint -- during the press conference Livni rejected the idea that the current Israeli "operation" had hurt negotiations with the Palestinians. For her it's served the "peace process." Oh, boy, what can I say?
Just a note first, perhaps this press conference is also where this meaningless talking point -- elements of DURABILITY coming into place -- got started. Let me see, are they referring to the DURABILITY of those many buildings in the Gaza Strip remaining in pieces on the ground or is it the DURABILITY of those 1,200 plus dead people remaining dead? Maybe they hope that the 5,320 plus wounded ones will achieve DURABILITY, too. Where DO they find their weird ideas?
THE LAST 8 YEARS
Well, the background to this period is the failure of the July, 2000 Camp David Summit. Supposedly, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians President, was offered a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state which he rejected. Norman Finkelstein has written that based on their rights under international law all of the concessions made at Camp David were by the Palestinians. Clearly, too many were expected. Perhaps it was Israel refusing to allow the Palestinians the Israelis forced out in 1948 the right to return or even receive compensation that did it. So once again there was no statehood or independence for the Palestinians. By the way, in 1949 the Israelis managed to grab 50% more territory than was originally allotted for them by the UN Partition Plan.
Based on several Wikipedia articles, I've discovered the following information. In September 2000, during that period of disappointment for the Palestinians, things got tense again when a Sergeant in the Israeli Defense Forces was injured in a bomb attack and died in the Gaza Strip. This led to the many Israeli checkpoints, strict curfews, and Israeli attacks that killed 300 in a few months. Israel was also carrying out home demolitions, mass arrests, and assassinations. Shelling, machine-gun fire, and bulldozers were used against the Palestinians, and Israeli colonizers/settlers uprooted their olive trees, i.e. their livelihoods. Basically, it was (and has been) a series of never-ending DISPROPORTIONATE actions.
In February 2001 Ariel Sharon was elected in a special election. Remember him? A real guy of peace (NOT!) who may or may not be alive somewhere in a vegetative state. During his time in office, the large wall that secures more stolen land for Israel went up (2002) and was declared to be violating international law in 2004. Also in 2004, in November Yasser Arafat died at age 75. This was after he'd been confined to his Ramallah, West Bank compound for over 2 years by the Israeli army. What was the point of that -- to speed up his death, intimidate other Palestinian leaders, provoke the Palestinians so that unrest could always be used to delay negotiations? This last DOES seem to have been a Sharon plan, i.e. freezing (stalling) the negotiation process by creating excuse after excuse to NOT negotiate.
In January 2006 Sharon suffered a stroke. With Sharon in a coma, Ehud Olmert became the acting Prime Minister who then won in the March 2006 elections and was approved by the Knesset in May 2006. He has carried on Sharon's policies. The July 2006 conflict with Lebanon, where Israel was defeated, happened during his time in office. His continuing problem seems to be corruption, and in July 2008 he said he'd resign as soon as a new leader was named. An election is now scheduled for Feb. 10, 2009 and Livni is trying to win by being tougher than the guys.
So, from Sept. 29, 2000 to Nov. 11, 2008 -- 6,300 Palestinians were killed by the Israelis according to these less that clearly presented statistics. This is what Livni called holding back. She's DEFINITELY a lot crazier than I realized -- and, thus, just MIGHT win in those elections. Of course, since Dec. 27, 2008 to the present AT LEAST 1,200 were killed and AT LEAST 5,300 have been wounded. In both periods high numbers of women and children have been killed. So that is a total of AT LEAST 7,500 killed in 8 years -- nearly a thousand a year in a pretty small country.
THE UNILATERAL CEASEFIRE
SO, we now have Israel's announcement. It is really hard to listen to and handle the lies and insincerity that are its main component. For example,
• it was all Hamas's fault that so many people died and were wounded -- excuse me, but that's bullsh*t.
• we tried very hard to minimize civilian casualties, and we regret the losses -- well, I'd say that Israel's use of banned weapons, the large numbers of women and children killed, NOT allowing in 90% of the aid, and then destroying UN sites and the Red Cross's humanitarian aid itself show these remarks to be a lie.
• our goals have been achieved beyond our expectations -- well, if the goal was to cause as much death and destruction as they could in 3-weeks, then they DID achieve that. If they expected to turn the Gazans against their elected representatives, Hamas, then they have failed. If they expected the world to support their unilateral attack, then they have failed rather spectacularly. Israel has lost a great deal of credibility. In fact, the planned boycotts should proceed to bring them to the negotiating table (see below).
• we solved the arms smuggling problem -- that's a TOTALLY UNPROVEN problem given the mainly closed borders, constant surveillance, and no evidence.
SO, there it is -- a unilateral ceasefire by Israel after 22 days of basically unilateral bombing and ground attacks. Remember those Sharon ideas about stalling negotiations, well this is another version of that. No, ceasefire agreement means the Israelis can keep on with their occupation, their blockade, letting their forces remain on the ground, or bombing the Palestinians any time they feel like it.
Hamas all along has wanted the blockade of the Gaza Strip to end (a crucial point in the June-December 2008 ceasefire, broken in Nov. by Israel, and related to Hamas's non-renewal). They also want the border crossings opened, the COMPLETE withdrawal of the Israeli military, and compensation for ALL of the damage caused. Since there IS no agreement between both parties, NONE of these have been discussed which IS the point.
There are various agreements being put together, but stalling is the way Israel works as they plant more colonies (quite nice exclusive housing complexes) within the Palestinian territories and literally kill off or force out the Palestinians day by day as we've seen so clearly. It's been going on for over 60 years. The actual occupation of the Palestinian territories has gone on since 1967, nearly 42 years. Unless ISRAEL comes to the negotiating table and shows the Palestinians the respect they themselves expect, there will be just be another lull in the continuous DISPROPORTIONATE violence that Israel metes out to the Palestinians.
In addition, Israel, the US, and the UK continue to remain basically rogue states with leaders that disregard the laws of their own lands as well as international laws. These leaders continue to become ever more lawless since they are not held accountable or punished. It's a horrible situation.
Marie K.
#
A Carbon County, PA inmate was feared to have a heart attack and was flown by helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown. He turned out to have had seizures and the bill to the county, after a 60% reduction, was almost $44,000. Commissioner Charles Getz said the county should be able to attach the costs to inmates ''so they follow them for the rest of their lives.'' ... Excuse me, Charlie, but this is just the type of mentality that is so common among politicians towards prisoners. ... Continue reading ...
Having spent years in Social Services I can tell you this: It probably wasn't just because
of their names that they were taken. Child Protective Service workers are incredibly
understaffed, underpaid, and overloaded. If the kids got taken what probably happened is
that when the Nazi name story broke the neighbors etc that saw the kids getting treated
badly started filing real complaints so that they didn't end up in the paper too for not
protecting the kids. The Nazi thing is good for the news but not for actual social work.
My coworker had one (among hundreds-some more horrific than you could possibly imagine)
complaint where a person had seen her next door neighbor keep her son in a doghouse and
feed him dog food, while not letting him attend school (The school had also called us.) -- and
it still took a month for our boss to dispatch her to the house-at which time the boy was
removed from custody.
Sherri B.
A tip of the hat for your work in social services. The two scariest jobs in public service, I think, must be child protective work and answering 9-1-1 calls. In either job, if you do it right you're never noticed at all, but if you make one little mistake it's all over the newscasts and newspapers.
#
I'm amused by all the posturing being made about Obama before he has actually received power. He hasn't done a doggone thing questionable except be very very careful about the statements he makes. Which is evidence of a wise leader.
I'll admit that picking Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation is not for me, but Warren IS THE Superstar of the Xtian bloc, and there's something to be said about drawing star members of your opposition to beseech god for you.
Anyway, for all the stupid ass things Warren has done, I don't think we'll find photos of him fellating a 13-year old boy on the internet 3 years from now. That's definitely a step up from the last guy, Dub-wassisname.
K.L.
I don't know anything about GW Bush and a 13-year-old. May I ask, what's your source?
At least a third of Obama's picks strike me as wrong-headed middle-of-the-roaders who shouldn't be in charge of anything, but I'm willing to wait and see. We won't start giving him serious sh*t until Wednesday.
Helen & Harry Highwater
I meant some of the pastors Dubya hobnobbed with.
Gotta have some wrongheaded middle of the roaders. Put 'em in places like sec of state where things are so f*cked they can only get better. But check out who he picked for Sec of Energy.
Most of these positions are human scrap posts. pointless under current conditions. But key positions (like his Atty General): good stuff.
Ya gotta either believe in Obama or not at this point. Pre-disillusionment is sad sadness.
We have horrifying facts on the road ahead, things far worse than what some idiot Bush could do to us. We'll need a strong leader to face them. I think Obama's that guy.
POlitics as usual is about over, much like in the first five years of the '30s.
K.L.
Well, I don't share all your optimism, but I also don't share the heavy dose of pre-disappointment a lot of lefties have for Obama. My hopes aren't high, they're modest -- but hopes I got.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/20/2009:
Well my hopes are simply that Obama will continue to prove to be the leader
he has shown.
The other is that he'll get us seriously working on energy. Almost all our
answers are there. As for undoing Bush's legacy: piece of cake. Let the rain
wash it off. SO my hopes aren't so high as my fears are vast: these next few
years will make or break us.
#
A federal judge has ordered the release of another prisoner from the Guantanamo concentration camp, because there's not evidence enough to hold him. "A mosaic of tiles this murky reveals nothing about this petitioner with sufficient clarity" to justify his imprisonment, says the judge. Mohammed El Gharani has been imprisoned since 2002, when he would've been about 15 years old, based on no evidence that stands up in a court of law. Kudos to the judge, but for the
"The objector and the rebel who raises his voice against what he believes to be the injustice of the present and the wrongs of the past is the one who hunches the world along."
Clarence Darrow
love of Christ I have no patience remaining for all the shallow, unthinking Americans who support torture and imprisonment without trial.
[ Washington Post ]
#
Israel has apparently declared war on the United Nations, shelling the UN headquarters in Gaza only a few days after killing dozens of people in a UN school. Israel's explanation seems a tad fluid.
[ London Daily Mail ]
#
Some or most of the missing White House emails have been found, we are told. The lawyer for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Anne Weisman, has it right: "I'll believe it when I see it", except that it'll be awfully hard to "see" the emails that aren't there.
[ Washington Post ]
#
The New York Times reports that the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review has ruled that the President of the United States has right to order eavesdropping on people's telephone and email communications, provided there are "several layers of serviceable safeguards to protect individuals against unwarranted harms and to minimize incidental intrusions". But the New York Times has it wrong, according to Anonymous Liberal and according to my quick skim of the ruling itself (pdf). Please God, don't make me read legalese too closely 'cuz I'm no lawyer, but to me the ruling says that Congress has the right to reign in a President by requiring that surveillance be conducted within the restraints of law, and by writing the laws that do the constraining. Maybe I'll be saying oops tomorrow, but it sure looks to me like the Times needs a potty break. Quoting Anonymous Liberal, "nothing in this opinion is remotely relevant to or provides even the slightest bit of support for the Bush administration legal arguments used to justify the NSA program from 2001 to 2006, before the passage of the Protect America Act."
[ Anonymous Liberal ]
#
The American Army is covering up "friendly fire" deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The evidence is pretty dang close to inarguable.
[ Salon ]
#
Laura Bush insisted that organic food be served at the White House, while her husband spent eight years helping big agribiz and pushing for synthetics, bio-engineering, pesticides, and reduced organic standards.
[ ThinkProgess ]
#
Bank of America wants billions more in federal funds to complete its takeover of Merrill Lynch. And doggonit, I somehow suspect they're going to get it.
[ McClatchy Newspapers ]
#
New York Community Bank has said thanks but no thanks, and turned down $596 million in bailout money. My understanding is that banks don't get this money without applying for it, so presumably someone at NYCB has had a change of heart. [ bailoutsleuth.com ]
#
Eric Holder, Obama's nominee for Attorney General, said yesterday that he'll "review" the curious decision of his predecessor, Michael Mukasey, to not press charges against corrupt DoJ official Bradley Schlozman. He also seems to understand what torture is and that torture is insanity. I would like to buy Mr Holder a cup of coffee.
[ TPM Muckraker ]
#
Last week, Congressman Paul Broun (R-Georgia) brought a few of his right-wing fruitcake friends into the basement of the Capitol, and up to a door Barack Obama will pass through on the way to his inauguration. Broun then helped them anoint the door with oil, and paint crosses on it. Broun, you might recall, is the Congressman who recently called Obama a radical Marxist Nazi socialist. Is it unreasonable to suggest that Congressman Broun might be out of his mind?
[ The Daily Beast ]
#
The State Department says it's "completely not true" that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert demanded President Bush interrupt a speech to take his call and take his orders. Olmert stands by his story.
[ YNet ]
"The spill is 40 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, and
one of the greatest environmental disasters in our nation's history. Imagine
a river nearby to where you live: healthy, full of aquatic life, essential
to community, ecology and economy. Now imagine that same body of water now
filled with a grey-black sludge almost volcanic in proportion and density,
full of toxins and poisons."
[ David Cook ]
"Outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden is going around town telling folks he
has warned President-elect Barack Obama "personally and forcefully" that if
Obama authorizes an investigation into controversial activities like water
boarding, "no one in Langley will ever take a risk again."
[ Ray McGovern ]
"Godspeed, then, Mr. Bush. Good health and long life. I hope you live to hear history itself tell you what an awful president you were."
[ Leonard Pitts Jr. ]
#Slate's fine writers want you to believe that because the convening authority of the kangaroo court at Guantanamo Bay has spoken the word "torture" to describe what America's done to a single prisoner, everything's changed. I've read the article top to bottom and I'm far from convinced, but a smidgen of optimism is an enjoyable drug now and then.
[ Salon ]
#
Meanwhile, Darrel Vandeveld, the former prosecuting attorney in the US government's case against Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan held prisoner at Guantanamo since 2002, has done a complete about-face. Vandeveld has filed a brief seeking Jawad's release, on the grounds that Jawad was tortured and the evidence against him is crap. That takes some courage on Vandeveld's part, and for that he deserves a salute.
[ Washington Post ]
#
Edwin Cameron, an openly gay man, has been appointed to South Africa's Constitutional Court, that nation's highest judicial body.
[ Hunter for Justice ]
Please send your news tips, comments, and criticisms to <unknownnews at inbox.com>. If that address ever fails, check our contact page for our alternate email addresses.
#
I'm unsure about the piece below: it may be a hoax. If so, they sure
did put lots of work into it! Read the text: if this thing's real, I believe
it's the wildest automotive concept short of a flying car I've seen.
This stuff seems a bit galling to me. Obama is openly partying with some of the worst folks on Earth, who actually did as much as anyone to keep him out of the White House, while bloggers like you and I who have actually fought against such bastards for years before anybody ever even heard of Obama, are out here struggling just to get by. Will we ever get to party too?
So I'm not the only one who feels this way! Unfortunately, there seems to be distressingly little talk about universal healthcare and related items among Obama's inner circle. Especially as a part of the imminent stimulus package. And sifting through Obama's past speeches regarding the subject isn't nearly as inspiring as a similar check of Hillary Clinton's(!) And he plans to ship her off to the Mideast! Gulp!
If Obama ends up giving us something like the McCain campaign offered for this (primarily the status quo, lip service, and a 'tax credit'), that'd be all it'd take to turn me steadfastly against him for the rest of his time in office. For this particular issue is in my face on a near daily basis, for myself, my aging parents, and my young niece and nephews. If Obama gets healthcare wrong, that'll stick to him like glue.
They finally found something that hurts prions! This may also be the only thing which prevents all animal life on Earth (including humans) from dying of a massive Mad Cow-like plague.
Even if this is true, it's a moot point, so long as the US mainstream media is in consistent pro-Republican, pro-corporate, and anti-Democrat propaganda mode. In America these days, it's not truth that matters-- it's perception. Legally forcing mainstream media presentations to actually be truthful would change not only America, but the world for the better.
"While prosecution of Bush and Cheney would be hard-pressed to fail, and politicians who supported it would be hard-pressed not to rise in popularity, Cheney has given us a preview of his legal defense: "We were never impeached."
I urge you to reflect for at least several minutes on the horror of this result. This is one of the bitter, deadly fruits of cowardice in the face of evil. It helps to illuminate a critical principle, one that would be very simple to appreciate if it were not for the unstinting efforts made by Democrats like Conyers and the most vocal of Democratic apologists to evade the truth and refuse to acknowledge the obvious: each retreat from battle makes the next battle that much harder. The Democrats are always talking about "saving their gunpowder" for the next fight, which will be the genuinely important one. But each act of cowardice of this kind -- and it is cowardice, we should call such acts by their rightful name -- weakens them, rather than making them stronger. Each concession to evil makes evil stronger, while the coward reinforces his own cowardice. Thus, evil consolidates and expands its reach -- and those who would fight against evil are pushed farther offstage."
A point I would like to make to you, which may (or not) be outside the realm of your normal inquiries, is that the US Empire is crumbling financially. Eventually the regimists of both parties will be forced to adopt different policies because they do not write their own reality.
We are at a tipping point now. The decline will at best be delayed by a bit, it will not be denied.
To alter the trajectory of the US would require that the politicians take drastic action prior to the levee breaking, so to speak. And that will not occur.
I have no blind spot for Israel, just as I have no blind spot for the actions of America
or my country for that matter. I have no comments in the defense of Israel nor Hamas; it
is their war not mine. War has always been and will always be brutal, ugly and insane.
War is a manifestation of social insanity, and one can't place reason in a place where
reason no longer exists.
Why always such a world fuss about the Middle East? Where is world anger for Darfur and
the Congo? Where was the world outrage for Pol Pot or for Rwanda?
Why is everyone a terrorist these days? The word has become meaningless.
Terrorists/Rogue States are only those people/countries who lose the war. Who would have
been the terrorists had the British defeated Gen. Washington's army? During WW2, were
Allied bombings of Axis city civilian populations terrorism? The Nazi regime did the same
thing. The difference is the Allies won and the Axis powers lost.
What of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Prior to bombing the cities, why
has no-one ever asked why the Americans never dropped a bomb on an uninhabited island a
demonstration to the Japanese of the utter destructive capability of this new weapon? The
answer: because they chose not to. Sometimes it is as simple as that.
I do find it interesting, however, that the only Middle Eastern state with anything to say
in defense of the Palestinian plight of Gaza is Iran; and Iran is Persian not Arab. Pres.
Ahmadinejad's recent comments are correct. For all their decades of vitriolic propaganda
against Israel's contempt of Palestinian populations along their border, the silence of
these same Arab States is tantamount to complicity.
My final thought:
So the bigger question is why are Arab States so quiet? What is the undercurrent
motivating Arab nations to remain so quiet and in the case of Egypt, openly cooperative
with the Israeli actions? It is this story which is not being radically investigated, and
upon which I have been thinking a great deal. Answer this question and the real truth
behind this war will see the light of day.
The Canadian
I love ya, TC, but you've typed 350+ words ostensibly answering a question about Israel's attack, bombing, and invasion of Gaza, without typing one word of blame for Israel. Arabs and all the Arabs nations, not Israel, are responsible for the 1,000+ dead people in Gaza? Seriously? But you don't have a blind spot for Israel...
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/17/2009:
Precisely. This conflict has been ongoing, in one form or another, since 1948. It takes to 2 tango, so why focus on only one side of the equation? There is plenty of blame to go around against both sides.
This war has never really been solely about Palestine or Israel; this war has always been a part of the regional hegemony struggles for control of oil/gas resources. If this were not the case, like Darfur, Rwanda, Tibet and the Congo, where body count and conflict has been much higher and more brutal, no-one would really give an effective flying flip.
This won't be over until one side or the other loses, permanently. For this to occur, support for Israel would have to be abandoned by the US, or support for the Palestinians would have to be abandoned by Russia, Iran, Syria, Quatar, Saudi Arabia etc...
What are the odds either side will lose support of their benefactors? For that to occur, the whole of the Middle East would have to burn.
Like it or not, You and I and everyone else living in developed industrialized nations contribute daily to this war by simply going about our everyday lives because the very foundation of our economies depend upon oil.
So I will not point a finger of blame at Israel, because the truth is I would have 3 other fingers on my hand pointing back at me.
The Canadian
A modern, industrialized society requires oil, but it doesn't require the bloodshed we're seeing, and the Gaza slaughter isn't about oil.
The Middle East gets huge attention in western media because there's oil there, sure, and because Israelis are perceived as white and thus matter to the media, while Arabs, Africans, and Tibetans aren't and don't. But yeah, Gaza is a relatively minor hell compared to other recent hells, and compared to the hell America's brought to Afghanistan and Iraq. It's just the third biggest hell on earth that I'm forced to knowingly underwrite through American taxes, which gives it an extra piss-off factor for me.
'Plenty of blame for both sides' is a line often recited, but it's bogus. There's no "both sides" when a modern militarized nation attacks a non-nation, it's just one-sided state-sanctioned mass murder, happening daily. It's not even as alibi-ready as America's stupid attacks on Iraq -- at least those wars involved two nations, not one.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#
I understand your piss-off factor. My country is the extra pair of socks in the same pile of dirty laundry.
Please don't mistake my cold, real-politik comments as hard-hearted. I just see this conflict as another point on the continuum of barbarity that has become the middle east since the end of the 1st World War.
I could write an historically accurate diatribe full of correct references like Marie K does. And Marie K's messages and references are correct. But as soon I posted such an article, there would be an equally accurate and referenced article opposing each and every one of my assertions. So what's the point?
This is the nature of the conflict: two correct, but incompatible ideologies/personal historical experiences. Is this not the nature of every conflict?
Add to this situation:
• the fact that Judaism, Islam and Christianity all are founded upon Semitic historical experiences • OPEC • the region is a fulcrum of competing regional and global hegemonic competition • the rise of fundamentalist religious sentiment opposing modernity as expressed by Judaism, Christianity and Islam • regional political/economic instability • diminishing fresh water supplies
Is it any wonder that conflict reigns supreme?
And yes, it is about oil. Until another power source usurps oil as the primary source of energy, it will always be about oil.
The Canadian
There's probably oil under Gaza, but that's not why Israelis are killing Gazans. Other than that, you paint what looks to me like an accurate overview of the big picture. Real-politik, as you say, and that's fine and dandy. Sorry about the piss-off factor. Getting emotional often gets in the way, and I try to avoid it when possible and downplay it when I can't avoid it. I'd call it the Spock perspective from Star Trek -- just the facts, with no emotion. Nothing wrong with that.
But the facts have changed in the past few weeks, and you're saying nothing that couldn't have been said a month ago or a year ago. It's all about a 60-year overview. I'm detecting no comment from you that's really about the subject at hand, 3+ weeks of shelling and bombing that's left 1,000 people dead. Anything to say about that, specifically?
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/19/2009:
Here is what I specifically think of the Israeli use of their military force
in Gaza:
1. overdone and overplayed against a ragtag, poorly trained, under-equipped
amateur guerrilla force who were really nothing more than a flea on the tip
of a dog's tail
2. shelling against the UN assets was not accidental and is a crime
3. the use of white phosphorus and experimental DIME munitions is
against the law
4. Politically motivated in favor of the posturing of politicians seeking
power in upcoming Israeli elections and as a message against Hez b'Allah,
Iran and Syria relative to Israel's disastrous foray into Lebanon in 2006
5. Israel did not and will not achieve their long term military and
political goals
6. Iran remains the 800-lb guerilla in the room. Israel should just face its
real enemy, and it wants to do so, but the US forbids such a regional
military apocalypse from occurring.
That being said, Hamas also purposefully situated themselves to plan and
fight such a war using the Gaza population as human shields in some form or
another. For the amount of firepower used, civilian deaths, although
atrocious, were actually minimized relative to what Israeli firepower could
have caused.
The Canadian
Appreciated, and you win bonus points for "800-lb guerilla", a clever turn of phrase that's new to me.
Let me ask you something, for which I don't know the answer with any certainty: When a missile is fired from Gaza into Israel and we're told on every channel and in all western media that Hamas is responsible, is that (a) asserted only by Israel (b) asserted by impartial yet knowledgeable observers or (c) factual? Or asking the same question a different way, is there honest, serious evidence or just Israel's say-so, that Hamas owns and orders or facilitates the firing of these rather primitive rockets, instead of what seems the plausible notion of free-lance radical groups or lone extremists purchasing/assembling and shooting off garage missiles?
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/21/2009:
This is a very interesting question. I'll take time to answer, 'cause there is some technical stuff. Back soon.
I hope my last couple of submissions clarify some outstanding doubts as to my actually being a human being with a beating heart ;-)
I try not to get caught up in the black hole of anger that swirls out from these events. As you can tell, it can easily capture good people, with good intentions, but diminish their reasoning skills.
Oh, and I forgot to address your question about "oil under Gaza"... It's a lot of natural gas off shore of Gaza and Israel, actually.
The Canadian
I can vouch that you're a human being. Looking forward to your answer.
For all my righteous indignation, I've said it before and I'll say again that Israel's worst crimes are mere fractions of America's crimes. And lordy, I am flat-out of patience for Americans who make Israel and Palestine the central issues of their lives. You know these people -- they're born and raised in America and they've never been to the Middle East except maybe for a vacation once, but even if you're talking about Gilligan's Island or the Green Bay Packers they'll change the subject to Israel (for some it's Israel's crimes and for others it's Israel's victimhood). And if you change the subject to something else, they'll change it back. Oy.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/17/2009:
The way I heard it from the Canadian was...
"Hi, Angry Annie,
I have no blind spot for Israel, just as I have no blind spot for the actions of America or my country for that matter..."
I heard: War has always been and will always be brutal, ugly and insane. War is a manifestation of social insanity, and one can't place reason in a place where reason no longer exists.
I do believe that covers Israel. Did you need for him to specifically come out and say a bunch of things about Israel to make that statement true?
Sorry to nit pick.
Sherri B.
I don't know what I want to read/hear, Sherri. For years and years I've had pretty much the same viewpoint The Canadian offered -- just rolling my eyes at the Arab-Israeli forever conflicts. I always figured that there must be lots of money and power invested by everyone in keeping the hatred alive, and I still think so, but my patience is evaporating as I become a cranky old lady.
I'm never going to be one of those people whose whole perspective revolves around Israel and Palestine and all that jazz, but yeah, at this point some badmouthing of Israel would cheer me up. It isn't a fair fight and I don't like bullies and it's starting to get under my skin... but I'm trying to be civil about it.
Nitpicking is welcome and encouraged.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/17/2009:
Ah I see :) Then you should see the latest few pages of Mike's on Whatreallyhappened.org.
He is definitely Israel focused right now. You'll definitely read enough to satisfy
anything you need to read and/or hear.
Sherri B.
I like Mike, and he's been good to us with occasional links from his blog, which has a lot more readers than ours. WRH is in my regular surf cycle for news gathering, and I always find at least one or two worthwhile items there that I hadn't known about before clicking.
Helen & Harry Highwater
#1/17/2009:
A thousand innocent people have been killed in Gaza, right before our eyes, killed mostly with American weapons and American dollars. And your response [The Canadian] is to say, pay no attention to the killing that's all over our televisions and newspapers because it's not as awful as the genocide in Rwanda fifteen years ago and there's plenty of blame to go around against both sides... So we should shut up, don't give a damn, change the channel? Man, that's cold. As Rwanda unfolded, were you saying to pay no attention because it wasn't as awful as Pol Pot's killings? While Pol Pot was happening, were you saying to disregard it because it wasn't as awful as the Jewish Holocaust?
My thinking is that when something outrageous happens, decent people should be outraged.
Angry Annie
#1/19/2009:
Trouble is, not all outrageous events get equal levels of outrage from decent people.
My Reply: I agree with you, Annie. When something outrageous happens, decent people should be outraged. My point, however, is that it does not always happen in equal measure. The cold reality is, we only give a shit about the Middle East because we have been politically indoctrinated as a society to weigh the tragic events of the Middle East more heavily than other tragic events that occur outside of the Middle East. What happens in the Middle East directly affects our nations' abilities to continue to rape the earth and dominate weaker people/nations. Do you really think that the USA became the most powerful nation on the planet because it purports to export democracy to countries that we determine need it and because it trades fairly? No, it is because the USA and its Allies (including Israel) have the economic and military power to enforce their will. The foundation of this power is access to oil.
Its a cold fact, Annie, that millions die everyday under horrible circumstances and most people are neither aware, nor really care. It seems more attention is given to the Middle East because those conflicts have the potential to disrupt access to the source of our power and therefore disrupt our ability to live our lives in the manner we have become accustomed to. That is to say, to be greedy-ass, blissfully unaware, global resource gorging bastards.
Rwanda - no oil Cambodia - no oil Tibet - no oil Congo - no proven oil (could be a lot, actually)
Kosovo - oil pipeline/huge natural resources Georgia (NATO) - pipeline Afganistan - pipeline Sudan - oil (the Chinese support this regime) Ukraine (NATO) - major E European hub for gas pipeline
Peace.
The Canadian
#1/20/2009:"My thinking is that when something outrageous happens, decent people should be outraged."
Well that depends on a few things:
What is your definition of "outrageous"? The rest of the world-Africa, Asia, The Middle East etc has seen destruction like this on a regular and on even greater scales for thousands of years. So to us, a young country-it may seem outrageous but to them it may seem business as usual.
"Decent people"? I'm not sure of who they are and I'm probably not one of them but I don't like the conflict at all no matter what the reason-though I know our government will stay in the game just for the sheer delight of basking in the light of being a "Superpower" much like an aging actress basks in her old roles and rusted celebrity status.(I'm in LA bear with me here.)
Also, we "should be" outraged? I'm outraged that children starve every day, I'm outraged that churches instruct people to not use birth control while they fornicate with church goers that love and trust them, I'm outraged that Americans so highly want to trust in words on a page or in one particular political official that they'll sit in their seats and get beaten and bloody in every way imaginable. (People get pissed about Israel but will they take a day or days off to protest?-nope.)
There are a lot of "should be's". People get overwhelmed by them. So if one person isn't as upset as another over thousands of years of fighting and madness well, we all pick our battles don't we?
Sherri B.
#1/20/2009:
23 days of unilateral firing and killing by Israel, and we're supposed to applaud a unilateral cease-fire after 1,200 or so innocent lives have been snuffed. As for The Canadian's remarks, I can understand someone not being mortified about Gaza, someone who's maybe never been there, doesn't know anyone there, doesn't know the extent of what's happening, or just someone who's given up on the craziness of the daily news. It's harder to understand someone who sees the killing and understands full well what's happening and not only doesn't give a hoot but who's actively telling people who ARE mortified to calm down and don't worry. That's not a difference of opinion, that's telling people to cover their eyes and plug their ears and shut their mouths and see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil...
One of my favorite quotes, from Martin Luther King: "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
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Excerpt: ... the conservative drumbeat over the Fairness Doctrine is much ado about nothing. It's fearmongering -- which may be good for fund-raising. Conservatives claiming that the Obama administration will mean the death of right-wing radio seem to forget this fact: Limbaugh and other conservative talkers thrived during the Clinton years.
Excerpt: Democrats in the US House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers' personal retirement accounts -- including 401(k)s and IRAs -- and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.
Comment: Relax, this report is just another flat-out lie. The proposal comes from exactly one economist you've never heard of, Teresa Ghilarducci of Notre Dame (not New College, as the article falsely reports). She's one among dozens of economists who briefly testified in low-level Congressional hearings in early October, and she's the only one who made this proposal, and there's been not a peep of interest in the idea from any member of Congress. The claim that Congress is "conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers' personal retirement accounts" is more Republican fearmongering, from the liars who brought you "Obama is pallin' around with terrorists" and "the Democrats will confiscate your guns".
Excerpt: The imagery sure doesn't sell me a soda, which would be the top priority of an ad for Pepsi. Seems much more likely it's someone's idea of an joke. It's a blog post, and it links back to another blog called "Feminist Law Professors" by Ann Bartow, a real law professor who writes an interesting blog, but her source is a blog about advertising, which cites another blog which posts a wide assortment of images and very few words, and where a site-specific search led to all three of Pepsi images. That whole blog seems to be artistic imagery, and much of it's actually quite good, but there's no claim that it's a Pepsi ad, and a quick web search yields nothing as yet to validate any claim that it's a real Pepsi ad.
Excerpt: Three of our readers have sent us this link to this news, but we're not convinced. The author's remark is based not on fact but on long-simmering rumor that Track Palin was prosecuted for vandalism and/or drug dealing, and offered a choice by the judge -- join the Army, or face a jail stint. Problem is, the record is sealed because Track Palin was a minor, so there's no knowing whether it's true.
Excerpt: What customers of what bank in Florida are going to accept Ameros, the fictional currency of the fictional North American Union? At what business can Floridians spend these Ameros?
Excerpt: It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that Sarah Palin is a racist. She's a Republican in a position of power, so I'd be a little surprised if she wasn't a racist. But before we can put it in the news section on our website, we'd need to hear about her racism from a more reliable source than "Dick & Sharon's LA Progressive" quoting "a waitress" and "an insurance agent" and "Juneau observers" -- a bunch of anonymous Alaskans who may or may not exist.
H&HH
*** *** ***
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Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several states as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution. viz: Articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
Amendment I
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Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
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