12/16/09

US Silent About Taliban Guarantee Offer on al Qaeda
By: Gareth Porter
The Barack Obama administration is refusing to acknowledge an offer by the leadership of the Taliban in early December to give "legal guarantees" that it will not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries.


Abbas to Haaretz: Peace possible in 6 months if Israel freezes all settlements
By Avi Issacharoff
If Israel completely halts construction in the settlements, negotiations with the Palestinians on a final-status agreement can be completed within six months, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Haaretz Tuesday, adding that Israel needn't declare the freeze, just carry it out.

12/09/09

Liberals, I Do Despise
by Adolph Reed
Nov. 12, 1996
Sometime early in Ronald Reagan's first term, I decided to forget everything I'd always disliked about liberals. I took pains to subordinate what put me off about them to the larger objective of unity against the rightwing onslaught, I decided to overlook their capacity for high-minded fervor for the emptiest and sappiest platitudes.....

‘Wake up, gentlemen’, world’s top bankers warned by former Fed chairman Volcker
Patrick Hosking and Suzy Jagger
“I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth — one shred of evidence,” said Mr Volcker, who ran the Fed from 1979 to 1987 and is now chairman of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Liberals Are Useless
By Chris Hedges
Liberals are a useless lot. They talk about peace and do nothing to challenge our permanent war economy. They claim to support the working class, and vote for candidates that glibly defend the North American Free Trade Agreement. They insist they believe in welfare, the right to organize, universal health care and a host of other socially progressive causes, and will not risk stepping out of the mainstream to fight for them.

Israel has made settlers of all its citizens
By Amira Hass
Would any of the settlers who opposed the Civil Administration inspectors this week be living in the territories had the governments of Israel not established and encouraged them? Would the Gush Katif evacuees have moved to mobile homes in Ariel in the expectation of spacious permanent housing had the government clearly declared that this was forbidden - because the settlements will be evacuated in the near future for a peace agreement - and that evacuation-compensation money would not be paid to anyone who moves to the West Bank?

Great cartoon

Congress is just filled with pieces of shit.

It turns out that there is some talk about conditioning the aid for Gaza, announced by Hillary, with the release of the prisoner, Gilad Shalit, the soldier captured by Hamas. So it is okay for Israel to kidnap non-military personnel to use as "bargaining chips" but not okay for the other side to capture a soldier. From where I sit, it seems as if the detention of thousands of non-military related Palestinians is a far greater crime than the capture of an enemy soldier. Maybe I am missing something here but I really am unsure what it is.

Oligarchy?

If memory serves me right, Socrates said that the next step from a democracy was an oligarchy. I believe, it has been a while, his reasoning was that the rich would eventually dominate and control democracy through their power and take over the reins. Of course, it has been quite some time since I last read the Republic but I think they were on to something. It is amazing to think that Socrates was around 500 years before Jesus. It kind of makes Jesus look like a moron.

Ahh Youtube

THis is shameful.

Then there is this.

Whoo whoo New President

Finally our nightmare is over and the least qualified man in history has left the Presidency. The fact that 1/2 the American population defended him for eight years says quite a bit about the intellect of Americans. Though my happiness at having a new President doesn’t end there. Now finally all the idiots who reflexively attacked Bush, with very little knowledge, will fade away and the real critics of American power will no longer be grouped in with those people.
I so look forward to attacking Obama’s administration as I did Bush’s. And from what it seems that shouldn’t be too difficult. The fact alone that he has surrounded himself with Clintonistas should automatically generate critique. Just imagine what terrible things Hillary is going to say about the Palestinian civilians. Then there is Larry Summers, I mean, cmon, this shit is going to write itself.
Now I just need to get back to posting regularly and from the looks of it, it shouldn’t be hard.

I wondered what journalism was.

Finally I know the answer. Too bad american journalists are nothing but propagandists.

Some thoughts on the slaughter.

Statement by Prof. Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
By: RIchard Falk
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war.

The IAF, bullies of the clear blue skies
By: Gideon Levy
Our finest young men are attacking Gaza now. Good boys from good homes are doing bad things. Most of them are eloquent, impressive, self-confident, often even highly principled in their own eyes, and on Black Saturday dozens of them set out to bomb some of the targets in our "target bank" for the Gaza Strip.

Party to Murder
By: Chris Hedges
Can anyone who is following the Israeli air attacks on Gaza—the buildings blown to rubble, the children killed on their way to school, the long rows of mutilated corpses, the wailing mothers and wives, the crowds of terrified Palestinians not knowing where to flee, the hospitals so overburdened and out of supplies they cannot treat the wounded, and our studied, callous indifference to this widespread human suffering—wonder why we are hated?

From the ashes of Gaza
By Tariq Ali
The assault on Gaza, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing, was designed largely, as Neve Gordon has rightly observed, to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the right and the far right in Israel

If Gaza falls . . .
By: Sara Roy
Israel’s siege of Gaza began on 5 November, the day after an Israeli attack inside the strip, no doubt designed finally to undermine the truce between Israel and Hamas established last June. Although both sides had violated the agreement before, this incursion was on a different scale. Hamas responded by firing rockets into Israel and the violence has not abated since then.
How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel? How can the impoverishment and suffering of Gaza’s children – more than 50 per cent of the population – benefit anyone? International law as well as human decency demands their protection. If Gaza falls, the West Bank will be next.

Chomsky on the eve of his 80th birthday.

stuff

Mormon Homophobia
By SHELDON RAMPTON
The question remains, of course, whether Hamlin is right that supporters of gay rights should refrain from "directly targeting people in their private life" by protesting and arguing with individual Mormons who have participated in the church's anti-gay campaigns. Certainly protesters should refrain from belligerence, threats and intimidation. However, the only way Mormon attitudes are going to change on this issue is through confrontation.

Unilever to sell stake in plant based in West Bank settlement
By Toni O'Loughlin in Jerusalem
"International law prohibits the confiscation of occupied land not for military purposes,"

Change.

One thing has changed as a result of the election of Obama. That change is that people who used to enjoy my attacking the President are no longer interested. The criticism was welcomed when the other team had the ball but now that it has changed hands criticism is not accepted.
Pretty fucking sad.

stuff

The Worst Is Not Behind Us

By Nouriel Roubini
Beware, therefore, of those who tell you that we have reached a bottom for risky financial assets. The same optimists told you that we reached a bottom and the worst was behind us after the rescue of the creditors of Bear Stearns in March; after the announcement of the possible bailout of Fannie and Freddie in July; after the actual bailout of Fannie and Freddie in September; after the bailout of AIG in mid-September; after the TARP legislation was presented; and after the latest G-7 and E.U. action.

America’s Wars of Self-Destruction
By Chris Hedges
The corporate forces that control the state will never permit real reform. This is the Faustian bargain made between these corporate forces and the Republican and Democratic parties. We will never, under the current system, achieve energy independence. Energy independence would devastate the profits of the oil and gas industry. It would wipe out tens of billions of dollars in weapons contracts, spoil the financial health of a host of private contractors from Halliburton to Blackwater and render obsolete the existence of U.S. Central Command.

Fucking Israeli Government

Israel is slowly starving the people of the Gaza strip because they hate the Arabs and want to take their land. Here are some excerpts from what others are saying,

The UN
The trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza, on which 80 percent of the population depended, has now been stopped for nine days by the Israeli army. The delivery of medical supplies and industrial fuel donated by the EU has also been blocked. The fuel was needed to power Gaza's sole power plant, which has now shut down, leading to rolling blackouts throughout Gaza.

UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon
The office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon released a statement on Saturday saying he is "concerned that food and other lifesaving assistance is being denied to hundreds of thousands of people, and emphasizes that measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as a whole are unacceptable and should cease immediately."

OxFam
"World leaders must step up and exercise all their political might to break the blockade of Gaza. As a matter of humanitarian imperative, Israeli leaders must resume supplies into Gaza without further delay. If Israelis and Palestinians alike don't exert every effort now to maintain the truce which has held since last June, the result could be catastrophic for civilians both in Gaza and in nearby Israeli towns."

The European Union
The EU statement further stated that "International law requires the provision of access to essential services such as electricity and clean water to the civilian population," and demanded that restraint be exercised by all parties to avoid an escalation of humanitarian suffering.

Amnesty International
The most through and to the point condemnation so far has come from a report released by Amnesty International, which called the current situation in Gaza "nothing short of collective punishment."

"Gaza is cut off from the outside world. Israel is seemingly not keen on the world seeing the suffering that its blockade is causing to the one and a half million Palestinians who are virtually trapped there," Philip Luther from Amnesty said.

What the hell is wrong with America? Why are we starving these people? I guess we must just come to grips with the fact that we, America, have absolutely no morals. Founded on Christianity? Bullshit.
The entire world looks at the AMerican oppression of the Palestinians and shakes their heads in shame. We as a nation have no right claiming any moral high ground.
Fuck Israel!

Observation.

Say what you want about the Republicans but at least they are better losers than the Democrats. The day after the election I perused the right wing press and found something interesting. They were actually blaming themselves for their electoral defeat. They were talking about not picking the right candidate, how they need to better articulate their policies and that they needed to go back to the drawing board. Sure they are now having a mini-civil war but that is to be expected.
Now contrast this to the last few Democratic losses. In 2000 it wasn't the Democrats, their candidate and their message that made them lose it was Ralph Nader. In 2004, same thing, though this time it was the voting machines in Ohio that stole election. It wasn't that the Democratic Party chose another rich robot who wanted to escalate the War in Iraq when the party was, now, firmly against the war.

Stuff

A Bone in America's Throat
By JEFF HALPER
Go where you may in the world and you will encounter the same phenomenon: a sense that the suffering of the Palestinians represents all that is wrong in an American-dominated world.

Obama's post-racial promise
By Shelby Steele
Obama is what I have called a "bargainer" -- a black who says to whites, "I will never presume that you are racist if you will not hold my race against me." Whites become enthralled with bargainers out of gratitude for the presumption of innocence they offer.

The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do both
By: Patrick Cockburn
The intelligence service is "not working for the Iraqi government – it's working for the CIA," Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful Shia lawmaker, was quoted as saying three years ago. "I prefer to call it the American Intelligence of Iraq, not the Iraqi Intelligence Service."

Hamas willing to accept Palestinian state with 1967 borders
By Amira Hass
Haniyeh said: "We don't have a state, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank. Gaza is under siege and the West Bank is occupied. What we have in the Gaza Strip is not a state, but rather a regime of an elected government. A Palestinian state will not be created at this time except in the territories of 1967."

I think Hedges is one of the best commentators out there.

America the Illiterate
by Chris Hedges
Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount.

A Few Thoughts on Obama's Victory.

Please stop saying this is a historical moment. Stop saying that this shows black people can be anything because that is bullshit. I will believe that the day that a black man becomes President with the credentials of Bush. Obama is about as perfect as a person can get, in this field. His credentials are impeccable. There is no way he would have ever been elected if he was as stupid as Bush is. Check this out if you disagree.

Obama's first choice for his White House is none other than Rahm Emanuel. Now Rahm Emanuels' father was a terrorist in the Israeli terrorist organization Irgun. Rahm himself is a former Israeli citizen and volunteered to serve in Israel's defense in 1991. So in other words there will be continued American oppression of the Palestinians and as a result the Arabs worldwide will hate us, rightly. So much for Change.

I am certain that we, America, will be going from the worst President in modern time to the most disappointing President of all time. So many people have such high expectations and they will be disappointed. To be fair it is their own fault. It is like there is this delusion people have about Obama. As if, for the first time in history a presidential candidate is making promises he intends to keep. I feel no sympathy for the morons who can't learn from history.

At best he will be Clinton's third term. Just look at the people he is surrounding himself with. Robert Rubin who championed the deregulation of the financial sector, as CLinton's treasury secy. and then left to be CEO of the newly created, though the deregulation, CItigroup. THen there is Larry "women can't do math" SUmmers. THese are just two of the assholes I could think of off the top of my head. So this is what he meant by change? A return to the great Clinton years, which gave us the Gingrich congress and the election of G. W. Bush.

These are just a few thoughts I had initially. I am really looking forward into showing the liberals that they are delusional and have no one to blame but themselves. Sure he will be better than Bush but so would an intelligent twelve year old.