Next meeting: TBD
6:30pm
30th St Station (Eating
area across from where Post Office used to be)
Contacting
us:
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Our view of the current war in
Iraq:
- The
Iraqi
Government has requested that
US
troops
leave their country. The Iraqi Government refuses
to
define
shooting
at
American
troops
as
a
"terrorist"
action.
Meaning: it's open season on Americans!
- Even hard-core
Neocons like David Frum (Came up with the term "Axis of Evil"
to
describe Iraq, Iran & North Korea) realizes that the war is
lost
and that the US can, at best, return to square one and restore what was
lost.
- Far from having a national "all-for-one, one-for-all"
feeling, the American political leadership is on
the
attack against domestic political opponents
- As the truth about the war trickles out from the
front
lines, the US all-volunteer military is getting fewer
and
fewer recruits with even strong
supporters of the war refusing to serve. The general
public is also rapidly losing enthusiasm.
- US allies
aren't providing much
help either.
- Iraqi have suffered an estimated 655,000
deaths as a direct result of the US invasion. Living standards for
Iraqis have dropped
sharply from what they were in February 2003
- Meanwhile, Big
Oil
is
attempting
to
lock
in
highly
favorable
contracts on
the
development of new Iraqi fields that would have the effect of robbing
the Iraqi public of billions.
- The military resistance in Iraq is 95%
Iraqi and is a force that's costing America more
casualties every month.
- The war in Iraq has
made
the US less
secure as
jihadists
from all over the Mideast have used Iraq as a training ground.
- The idea of spreading
democracy to a foreign country through an
invasion
and a military
occupation has proven to be sheer wishful thinking.
.
It's time to withdraw. The
war was a crime against humanity to begin with and the alternative is
to go through what happened in Vietnam in 1975, a panicked helicopter
exodus from the
rooftops.
PRAWN's
mission is to:
- Network groups, organizations, and individuals to
stop the
repression caused by "never ending wars" at home and abroad, by the US
corporate military state
- Support organizations having common ground
- Educate and activate the general public
Local Resource Organizations
National Organizations
"Political Allies Newsletter" email listserve which is
sent
out a
few times a month. There are actions you may want to support &
local, national & international articles, most of which are not
printed in
the Phila Inquirer or NY Times. Topic titles are listed. You may read
any
portion, file away for another time or delete any or all.
To subscribe, if in the Philadelphia area: send a blank
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address.
To subscribe If OUTSIDE the Philadelphia area then send
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Webmaster: Rich
Gardner
|
Upcoming Events
Upcoming
actions
Mid-March,
2011, nationally
coordinated teach-ins to mark the eighth year of the Iraq War and to
prepare for bi-coastal spring demonstrations the following month.
April 9, 2011, Bi-coastal mass spring
mobilizations
in New York City, San Francisco
and Los Angeles on
April 9, 2011. These will be accompanied by distinct and separate
non-violent
direct actions on the same day.
Local
activist
meeting to coordinate
opposition to wars across city
The
countdown
has
begun! In mid-September we will travel to Gaza
with hundreds of vehicles from across the world. In the next few weeks
we will launch our registration website. Please join our mailing list
now and we will contact you as soon as registrations open.
Viva Palestina website
Contribute to Viva
Palestina
This is an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports
covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe
the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States
military. They include the number of persons internally stated to be
killed, wounded, or detained during each action, together with the
precise geographical location of each event, and the military units
involved and major weapon systems used.
Speaker
Pelosi explains
meaning of chart. A look
at various predictions. Republican arguments demonstrate that they don't
have
a
clue as to what they're talking about. Paul
Krugman says the stimulus isn't big enough. The current economy is
now doing exactly
what was predicted many months back. Krugman warns
(Oct) "It ain't over yet." Whew! (Nov) Looks to be finally bottoming out. Very
interesting
view as to how the housng crisis began. Woo
hoo!!! Looks like good news at last!
On the morning of Tuesday
11 September
1973, two jets launched a deadly attack on the Presidential Palace of
La Moneda in the heart of Santiago, Chile. A military coup led by
Augusto Pinochet ousted the presidency of Salvador Allende, the world's
first democratically-elected Marxist head of state.
Also,
someone queried "Riverbend" of Baghdad Burning:
"Someone asked me whether it was true that the
'Iraqi people were
dancing in the streets of Baghdad' when the World Trade Center fell. Of
course it's not true. I was watching the tv screen in disbelief-
looking at the reactions of the horrified people. I wasn't dancing
because the terrified faces on the screen, could have been the same
faces in front of the Amiriyah
shelter on February 13… it's strange how
horror obliterates ethnic differences- all faces look the same when
they are witnessing the death of loved ones."
five years after the
US invasion
The
"burn rate" for the money the US is spending per month in Iraq was
nearly $5 billion a month in 2003 and has steadily grown to where, in
2007, it had reached about $11 billion
per month.
According to Barack Obama during a presidential debate, the price has
dropped to $10 billion a month.
Institute
for National
Strategic Studies (INSS) did a study
of the
Iraq War (60 page PDF),
concluding that it is a “major
debacle,” a
“classic case of failure,” and a conflict that may not be winnable."
Update: Contains lots of points of agreement with
Bush
Administration (i.e., that Saddam Hussein attempted
to
assassinate
the elder George Bush, among many others) but these can be seen as
tactical agreements, made so that other points have more credibility
(i.e., "This is not a DFH
screed!").
The
Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II report (PDF)
Part
I
Part
II
on the lies that the Bush
Administration told
the
American People in order to drag us into the Iraq War.
Post-"Surge,"
casualties in Iraq
start climbing back up
Icasualties "Casualty
Trends"
shows that US military fatalities reached an average of 30 per week in
Jun 07, declined to around 5 a week by Jan 08, but have remained
consistent at around 8 per week since then.
Update: Apr 08 is the
deadliest
month on record since Sep 07.
To mention
another issue, consider conservatives (red) vs liberals (blue) and how
Republicans would like to shift
that
balance
even further.
Seems the
plans made for the Iraq War fall into the category of what we
call
"wishful thinking." The idea here was that the occupation
force
in Iraq was going to fall to 5000 by December 2006.
Oops!
Media
Tank says
FCC is considering
reviewing rules
for media
ownership
This
may pave the way for further concentration of the
already-overconcentrated media
Media Tank
and other Philadelphia groups
ran a public hearing
with
FCC Commissioner
Michael Copps here in Philadelphia
on
January 18th, 2007. Archive of
presentation.
PhillyIMC story
Status
of Public
Access TV
Philadelphia
is about America's
only
major
city without public access TV. This
means that
noncommercial groups can't get airtime to explain their point of view
on any issue. They must depend on commercial media to do that
and
we have seen with the United
Church
of
Christ ads how willing they are to do that.
Thanks to the
Adelphia company
no longer being a player (PDF
on Adelphia's
sale of its assets.) in the cable TV business, Time-Warner and Comcast
are
now divvying up its assets. Adelphia used to own a
substantial
chunk
of Philly's cable TV market and those assets are now slated for
Comcast, which
currently owns the other
three-quarters of the city. Comcast has been
legally
obligated to provide free access to community groups since 1983 and the
reason it has not done so
is the subject of a long-running feud between the cable giant and the
city. PCAC
opposes
allowing Comcast to swallow up that last portion "until Comcast make a
public commitment to
fully fund public access." The Philadelphia
Grassroots
Cable
Coalition also points out that "Cable rates
have
risen more than three times the rate of inflation, with rate hikes in
Philadelphia of 5% or more annually."
PCAC
has a series of action
recommendations.
PGCC has a series
of links
to
other groups.
Also important
news on low-power Community FM radio!
Update!!!! August 2009 - MIND TV
conducts training sessions August 18, August 25, Septenber 1, September
16 & October 1.
Recommended
anti-war and progressive films
In
front
of
the
Recruiting
Office at Broad & Cherry Streets last
Friday of
each
month from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. September
07
The
Northwest Peace Coalition has been holding weekly candlelight
vigils at 7:30 pm each Wednesday at the intersection of Germantown
Avenue and Bethlehem Pike (near Borders Books) in Chestnut Hill.
Northwest Peace and
Justice
Movement and the Unitarian Society of Germantown will begin
on
December 8 to hold a peace vigil every Wednesday at 5:00 pm, outside
the Unitarian Society, 6511
Lincoln Drive (just north of Wayne
DelCo Drinkng
Liberally
meets at John Harvard's Brew House, 1001 Baltimore Pike #1B
(Springfield Square South) (map) monthly starting February 5th
6:30pm-8:30pm
Archive
of Action Items
Oh,
and just how DO Iraqis
feel about the "liberation" of their country?
From The
Angry
Arab News Service
Protest against assault
on
ship that was attempting to break the seige in Gaza.
Israel attacks Gaza
hours after above rally/march completed.
Photo-essay.
Cynthia
McKinney's
boat attacked
outside Gaza.
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution piece
on attack. Update
on McKinney. How the residents of Sderot
(An Israeli town bordering Gaza and the target for Hamas' missile
attacks) feel about the invasion of Gaza and visuals as to what the " Qassams"
(missiles)
look
like.
And
just how do Americans feel about the election of
Barack Obama
as our 44th President?
File
is a PPT slideshow, which can be viewed with either
Microsoft
Office
Powerpoint no-cost viewer or
with Open Office
no-cost office suite.
Philly Against War stages
a rally at City Hall
Did we gain a victory? Did the Armed
Forces Recruiting Station move away because we were protesting in front
of it once a month? Hey, ya never know!
IVAW Winter
Soldier event, A 25-mile march from the Constitution Center to Valley
Forge.
March on
Congressman Joe Sestak's office
Human
Chain Event - took place in coordination with 10 other
American cities all on the
same day. Other
demonstrations.
 29 Sep
protest blog
Yet another Tombstones
display!
Celeste Zappala with Iraq War vets behind her
We
decided to
start up yet
another
regular monthly protest! Sept07
We
were
concerned that we
might have a sparse demonstration in August. Code Pink
saved us by
showing up
at our monthly rally near Senator Specter's home!!
Declaration of Peace rally in Philly
One of the Grannies
for
Peace outside the recruiting station on June 28th.
Combination of pictures from Rich
and Monique
during march in NYC on 29 April 06
Easter Peace Event
Protest - Break the Silence
Observing third anniversary of beginning of Iraq War by picketing near
Senator Specter's home.
Cindy Sheehan, Monique Frugier, Bill Perry
Winter Solstice Event near Senator Specter's house
Photos by Monique
The
main,
serious,
essential
question
Bush comes to speak in
Philadelphia
These pictures by Monique
Gold Star Mother Celeste Zappala
|
Info,
articles, etc.
Yeesh, what a stupid complaint! The
National Review Online doesn't permit comments. The only way to
register feedback is to send an email or to send out a twitter. So what is the NRO
complaining about? NY Times' columnist Paul Krugman's comments
policy!
Update: Blogger
takes exception to having his haircut being compared to that of old
teen idol David Cassidy. The blogger at Sadly, No! answers:
But you, dude, you picked
that haircut. Voluntarily. You marched straight into some suburban
Hair Cuttery of your own free will and accord
and said “Make me look like
this” while pointing to the cover of an ancient issue of Tiger Beat.
(emphases in original)
No, the blogger didn't have anything to say on the comments hypocrisy.
Deficits aren't an urgent
problem, they can be eliminated as we saw with the Clinton
presidency. What happens with the opposite problem? What happens
when government doesn't spend enough? The
results
are not pretty, they aren't pretty at all. What about
the specific targets that the cat food commission wants to set? The
commission wants to limit government expenditures to 21% of GDP. That's
a
completely insane idea.
rasm-frasm $%#@&!!!
Supplemental war bill of
$59
billion passes 308 to 114. Democrats needed Republicans to pass it
as there weren't enough D's to pass it on their own. Total
authorized expenditures for the Iraq & Afghanistan wars now exceeds
$1 trillion.
A writer for The American
Spectator puts out an embarrassingly stupid
claim that Shirley Sherrod spoke of a man who was lynched and that
she was incorrect to do so. Lynching, acording to the writer, involves
a rope and a mob. Bobby Hall was beaten to death (i.e., no rope)
by three assailants (i.e., no mob). Numerous historians agree that neither a rope nor a
mob is necessary for a lynching to occur. Blogger concludes that writer
is
trying
to twist story around into attack on Sherrod. Writer defends himself
against colleague writing in same blog.
Wikileaks releases archive
of 91,370
formerly
secret
after-action
reports from Afghanistan, giving
Americans and the rest of the world a detailed, close-up look into the
conduct of the war in Afghanistan.
The Guardian references changes
to the Rules of Engagement under Gen McChrystal leading to some changes
in how civilian casualties were treated though the only actual change
them mention is a “new “information requirement” to record each
‘credible allegation of Isaf [the occupying forces] … causing
non-combatant injury/death’.”
The case of the-then USDA
employee Shirley Sherrod and her character-assassination-by-
edited-video by right-wing blogger/filmmaker Andrew Breitbart was a
very quick summing-up/preview of scandals both past and yet-to-be. Very
importantly, many bloggers, both on the right and the left, could tell
right away "Doesn't it sound like Sherrod was building to a 'but'
before the clip cut out?" Having watched the clip myself before I had
heard anything about it, I agree that it was pretty obvious that the
clip was incomplete. For both the NAACP and the Obama
Administration to go flying off the
handle and to denounce her and fire her before all the facts were
known, and especially as they
both knew that Breitbart was
behind the video is just flat-out shameful. The NAACP distinguished
itself by quickly investigating and reversing itself, the Obama
Administration dragged its feet for a bit before doing the right thing.
James K. Galbraith on
the
cat
food
commission. Great stuff! Well worth reading the whole
thing!
Stick a fork in it, it's
done.
Abigail Thernstrom is hardly
a
liberal on voting issues, but even
she
agrees that the New Black Panther Party and their antics during
the 2008 election aren't worth all of the durm and strang that Fox News has
applied to the complete non-story (Fox has featured the non-story 95 times as
of July 16th). Fox News person Megyn Kelly defends paying
so
much
attention
to
the
non-story on the grounds of "fidelity to
the law," but this concern of hers was something that suddenly appeared
on January 20th, 2009. It was nowhere in evidence concerning Bush's
warrantless surveillance or on the Bush/Cheney torture policies. So
naturally, the WaPo Ombudsman is now convinced
that his paper needs to start covering the story!
The FinReg bill that just
passed is a good thing, but is very,
very
heavily
dependent on the specific regulations that get passed
to flesh it out and make it all work. The success of the bill will also
depend very heavily on whether Elizabeth Warren gets
to
run
the
just-created
agency
or whether the job goes to some
Wall St. crony.
Karl Rove speaks
about the October 2002 AUMF vote that more or less served as the
declaration of war for the Iraq War:
All these Democrats had said, like Mr.
Bush did, that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD.
True. Problem is, the Senators and Congressmen were depending on the
CIA's National Intelligence Estimate of 2002, which did not include George
Tenet's briefing of September 18th, which
stated
that
there
were
no
WMDs in Iraq. Bush & Co. knew full
well that the reasons given for the war were false long before the war began.
Is the BP well finally
sealed? Signs
are
looking
good
that
it
is, but more testing needs to be done.
The complete and utter and absolutely
shameless
hypocrisy of the Cat Food Commission and other deficit
scolds is highlighted by the shenanigans over the Estate Tax. Senators
want to keep the heirs of millionaires and billionaires from having to
inherit less than they believe they deserve. Natcherly, that means less
tax money to put up against the "awful" deficit.
Right-wing complaints about
the
Obama Administration's responses to the BP oil spill being incompetent
mostly draw a "Yeah, yeah, yeah, show me some evidence why don'cha?" but the
evidence that the administration is colluding with BP to
keep
data
under
lock
and
key
is
very,
very
disturbing. There's already evidence that BP, with administration
approval, has
kept
reporters
from
beaches. Update: Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) has requested data
from BP about the leak and is still
waiting for it.
Sarah Palin's popularity as
a political figure remains
vastly
overstated. She sells well on magazine covers and sells
books well, but her online presence via Facebook, Twitter, etc.,
remains much more theoretical than real. What absolutely amazes,
though, is how much attention she gets from certain quarters. She did a
Facebook message responding to allegations of the Tea Party being
racist. CNN
reprinted
her
message
wholesale without bothering to, y'know, report on the allegations, as in presenting evidence, putting her
statements in context, stuff
like that.
"Bush & Cheney should
have been
indicted for torture." Okay, cool, in complete agreement of course.
This
was
on
Fox
News!!! This was Fox News' legal analyst and former New
Jersey district judge Andrew Napolitano being interviewed by Ralph
Nader.
Update: Someone pointd
out that Napolitano said that Obama should be "in the dock" alongside
Bush. I've got no problems with that, as
long
as Bush is in the dock.
Hope! Hope! Hope! The
catfood
commission just
might
be
dead!!!! Please God, let that be true!
Uh. Mah. Gawd! Mitt Romney
delivers a painfully
stupid
lecture on the new START Treay. Seriously, he talks about
ICBMs lauched from airplanes!
Whoa! David Broder makes some
sense here! I'd give him about a C+ for this, better than what he
usually gets.
Who knew Glenn Beck and
Lindsay Lohan would have something in common?
By giving liberal Keynesian
economists a
solid
target
to
shoot
at, David Brooks does them a favor.
So ya think it's nice that
hybrid
cars are so quiet? Wel, it seems advocates
for
the
blind
aren't
so
thrilled as blind people use audible cues
to tell them when it's safe to step off the curb. Hybrids are twice as likely to hit pedestrians
as regular cars are.
Seems the folks who
protested against Israel and in favor of the Gaza Flotilla were in
large part in
agreemen
with
America at large. Americans in general agree
that Israel was wrong to attack the flotilla.
Speaker Pelosi passes a
sort-of
budget resolution in the House that fails to specify just where budget
cuts will be made. That
job
will
be
delegated
to
the
catfood
commission! This stands to be
a remarkably
self-defeating
policy that will hurt Democrats vastly
more than Republicans. Further
details.
Interesting new look for
Wonder Woman.. Fox News denounces it as
unpatriotic.
Former President G.W. Bush
now ranked
in
the
bottom
five presidents of all time.
June
Excellent piece on torture by
Philadelphia's own Will Bunch. What a horribly shameful history since
2004, when Bush & Cheney admitted to America they were doing it!
The true shame of the matter has been that the press corps has made
torture sound like something that rational, civilized people can
discuss and disagree upon, as though there were something that was non-
controversial, or something that was not absolutely shameful about it.
Whoah dude!!! Can we say "conflict
of
interest?!?!?!" The judge who ruled against the six-month
moratorium on drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico has MAJOR financial conflicts of
interests that REQUIRED him
to recuse himself! Exxon oil rigs were losing a half a million
dollars a day during the moratorium and the judge was heavily invested
in Exxon.
Y'know, progressives during
the past decade have been responsible for many very significant
innovations in politics and have racked up significant political
victories. So why does the WaPo feel the need to assign three political
reporters to cover the conservative political movement and none for progressives?!?!?
Repubicans just
couldn't
care
less about anyone who makes less than a quarter of a
million a year. Anyone who's not rich is an untermenschen.
Very sad story of a good
journalist
taken down because of an anonymously
leaked
email that the journalist had every reason to believe would
remain confidential. What really bothers me about the case is that the
charge made against the journalist was that he "was no longer objective
enough to cover his beat." Since when is private, emotional objectivity
a requirement for journalism?!?!? If one writes in a fair manner
without obviously twisting the story to fit ones' political views,
isn't that all that matters? Why does one have to be an emotional
virgin or eunuch to boot?
Glenn Beck is trying to "reclaim"
the
Civil
Rights
Movement
for
conservatives.
Problem:
Conservatives
and
right-wingers
can't
"reclaim"
a
movement
they
were
never
a
part
of.
They
can
"hijack"
it,
but
to
say they're "reclaiming" it is ridiculous.
Senator Lindsay Graham
(R-SC) "is the same politician who has said that if you didn’t come to
Washington to solve tough problems, you should go home." Funny
that
he's
now
saying that
I’m not going to it in the
middle of an oil spill when the political environment doesn’t favor
what I want.
In other words, he's not in
Washington to do anything that's tough,
no,
no,
no,
he's
there
to
do
what he
wants.
Ooh!!! BP aware
of
cracks
in
well before explosion. Double-plus-ungood!!!
Very haunting
and
bitter
photo
comparisons between Jews and Palestinians.
Dispute with local
right-wingers over Thomas
Sowell
&
Franklin
D.
Roosevelt. Unfortunately, Sowell's piece
is VERY popular, despite the fact that it's wrong.
The Catfood Commission is
coming
to
town! Let's protest it!
Oops! Representative
Joe
Barton (R-TX) apologized
today,
to
BP
(!) for the US Government making BP pay into a $20
billion escrow account, which will then be used to pay claims.
Right-wing bloggers defended
Barton's
apology, but the Republican leadership tossed
Barton under the bus. Barton apologized.
Did
his
apology
mean
anything?
Ha,
ha,
no.
President Obama gives a "profoundly
underwhelming" speech in response to the BP oil spill
disaster.
Support for the Affordable
Care Act hits
45%
in
favor, 42% against.
The Maher Arar case is now
over.
The Supreme Court has
refused
to
review
it, thereby allowing all precedents set to stand.
The US is now free to abduct foreign citizens on a whim (or shoddy
evidence, same difference), send them off to be tortured, perhaps
murdered and will do nothing to apologize to, or to compensate, the
victim.
Is Glenn Beck's novel, The Overton Window, informed by his
on-air conspiracy theories? Yes. Is the book
of any literary value? Er, well, um, no.
What
Digby
says:
Any deficit scold who doesn't put
reducing health care costs at the
very top of the agenda is just a demagogic crank doing the dirty work
for the aristocratic overlords.
The Barney Frank commission
is getting
quite
serious. They're recommending almost $1 trillion in cuts to
the Pentagon budget. Problem is, the
deficit
scolds appear to think that cuts in Defense are out of the
question.
Visual commentaries on
Afghanistan's apparent
abundance in mineral wealth.
The boarding and killing of
several persons on the MV Marmara by Israel will
be
investigated
by... Israel!
We now have a
Representative asking
that Islamic
Sharia
law not be referenced by our courts. Which is kind of
amusing as Sharia law is very compatible with what right-wingers in
America would like to see applied here in the US.
Hah! That didn't take long! Blanche
Lincoln beat Bill Halter for the Democratic nomination for Senator for
Arkansas on the 8th. Here it is the 12th and already, the Chamber of
Commerce has made it clear that they
aren't
going
to
spend
any
more
money on Lincoln. Why should they?
They've got a real Republican
running against her! Why settle for a pseudo- Republican when the real
thing is available?
The "catfood commission"
wants to take away your Social Security benefits. There
are
many
better
ways to bring the economy back to health.
Update: Very good news! President Obama is
requesting
$50
billion
in
more
stimulus
funding.
Success!!!! The Army
Experience
Center is closing
down! It was found to be a bad idea, but peace groups certainly
played a part in making it unattractive.
Excellent piece from the
WaPo on how business is not politics and how business
success
doesn't
automatically
translate into political success.
I thought every stupid
thing
to
say about President Obama's use of the word "ass" had been
said, but...
Mr. Obama should be ashamed of
himself.... Mr. Obama occupies a sacred and noble position entrusted by
the American people.
Whu-u-u-uh?!?!? The Presidency is "sacred"? Since when? Republicans
have been saying awful things about Obama since well before he occupied
the office and they've refused to pass his legislation. Obviously, the
word "sacred" has a very highly selective meaning here.
Biggest disappointment of
Super
Tuesday primaries is the survival of Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) as
the Democratic nominee to keep her seat. The NY Times certainly
helped with a well-timed, pig-ignorant hit piece on her more
progressive opponent, Bill Halter. Will she get any support from the
big-money boyz who supported her in the primary? Nah,
they'll
switch
all
their
money
over
to
a
real
Republican. Will the unions
support her? Please,
not
after
some
unnamed
(Rahm
Emanuel,
probably)
"senior
White
House
official"
just
danced
all
over
their
graves. Good news? Actually, there
is
some. Lincoln's amendment on derivatives is highly likely to
survive.
Sarah Palin offers some advice
to President Obama on how to deal with oil company executives. She
suggests that Obama should have had more face time with the BP CEO Tony
Hayward. Of course, it's far from clear how this would have affected
anything as certainly, Palin is correct to say "you must verify what
the
oil
companies
claim"
[emphasis
in
original],
but
I
think
Obama
is
even
more correct to say that
"when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's gonna say all the right
things to me." It's kinda like G.W. Bush saying that when he spoke with
the Russian President Vladimir Putin "I looked the man in the
eye. ...I was able to get a sense of his soul." Well, that "sense" didn't prove to
be of any value when it came to South Ossetia, did it?
Something I've long
suspected.
Independent voters just
aren't
that
meaningful. A very large proportion are "leaners" who
prefer one party over the other. Truly independent voters who make up
their minds after studying the issues make up only around 10% of voters
and usually don't vote in primaries, so appealing to independents is
pretty much a complete waste of time.
Helen Thomas has
retired from newspapers (She's 89).
Thomas told a rabbi at a White
House event last week that Jews
should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and
Poland.
"I deeply regret my comments I made
last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians," Thomas said in a statement on her Web site.
"They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the
Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect
and tolerance. May that day come soon."
Glenn Beck reacts to charges
that he has been quoting approvingly from the works of a Jew-hating
Nazi sympathizer who refers to "The savage Mohammedan call of the
muezzin" (Call to prayer) also felt that African-Americans were being
exploited and fooled into opposing white capitalists. Oh, and races
intermixing was a communist plot. Beck is astonished, astonished I tell you, that people
think he agrees with this
hateful author that he's been quoting approvingly and whose book he has
been promoting.
The MV Rachel Corrie has
been
seized and the passengers detained. Unlike with the MV
Marmara, there are no reports of casualties. Earlier Israel seemed
okay with the
idea
of
allowing the Rachel Corrie to proceed after an
international team had inspected their cargo, but now
Israel refused this offer of a
check on cargo by the UN and instead
shadowed the boat for hours, jamming all communications until moving in
to seize the ship.
It's perfectly fine to hold
the President up to some standards, but the sky-high "standards" that
Obama is being hld to are approaching
the
absolutely
ridiculous. Desperate to find something
[comma]
anything to
criticize Obama
for, a reporter
Matthew Dowd complained on ABC
recently that he expected Obama not to "politicize things."
In this case, "things" is in reference to "elections."
The really sad part is that, in order to make the Sestak "scandal"
stick (Obama got Bill Clinton to offer Sestak an unpaid advisory
position if he would drop out of the primary against Sen. Specter), TV
commenters are
reduced to flat-out lying about the law
Glenn Beck is convinced
that progressives "co-opted" the Civil Rights Movement. Um, no. Progressives
invented the Civil Rights Movement. It arose directly out of
progressive values. Conservatives? Read the enclosed piece from Former
Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson, a Mormon and a right-winger. If
his language seems familiar, it's because that's how Beck and his
buddies speak today.
Simple answers to simple
questions. VP Biden says:
"[The Israelis have] said, 'Here
you go. You're in the Mediterranean. This ship -- if you divert
slightly north you can unload it and we'll get the stuff into Gaza.' So
what's the big deal here?"
The big
deal is that:
A U.N. official said last week
that the formal economy in Gaza has “ collapsed,”
and
60
percent
of
households
there
were
short
on
food.
The
Guardian
notes
that according to UN statistics, “around 70% of Gazans live on less
than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to
water.”
In other words, supplies are not
being delivered!!! There are plenty
of supplies waiting outside the borders of Gaza, but Israel is
preventing their delivery.
Update: Response
to a letter in the Inky.
Blogger goes on TV and disputes
traditional
media
framing of the assault on the Freedom Flotilla
ship as being "Hey, they were all terrorists anyway, what's the big
deal?"
Right wing blames
Obama for the Freedom Flotilla's existence.
Statistical breakdown of
detainees at Gitmo. "Many"
were
legitimately
imprisoned. 55% were "low level fighters" i.e.,
goat-herders.
Governor of Lousiana Bobby
Jindal
(R) has mightily
impressed members of the traditional media press corps
Constantly jumping in and out of
National Guard helicopters and drawing
up plans for additional “burrito levees” and “boudin bags”...
Yep, that's our Bobby, being all energetic and active. But then they
say he's shown that he's "mastered the details of the issue." Has he?
Wel-l-l-l, as a US Representative, Jindal strongly supported "open[ing]
8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas
drilling," so I'm not sure I'd give him any props for his highly
convenient, new-found environmentalism.
May
The deficit scolds are
making their
malign
influence felt.
As of this morning (May
30th), the
cost of our war in Afghanistan hit the $1 Trillion
mark.
Speaker Pelosi blames Bush
Administration officials who were "burrowed"
into
Federal
agencies,
after
McCani
lost
the
2008
election,
for
the
BP
oil
disaster.
This
was
a
serious
concern back during November of that year.
Uuurgh!!! The Sestak
job-offer "scandal" appears to be off
and
running. BTW, Digby makes the prediction that Liz Cheney will
run for office.
Another right wing talking
point on BP and Obama is that Obama got more campaign cash from BP
than anyone else. True, but that
cash
amounted
to
0.0002% of Obama's campaign cash (Less than
$100,000 out of nearly $400 million).
Naw-w-w-w, really? Sex
& The City 2 is culturally
tone-deaf and
offensive to Muslimes?!?! Never woulda think it!
A commenter in the
Inky declares that:
Unlike the situation with
Katrina, the [BP] oil spill occurred in Federal
waters, and the Federal Gov't was not directed by law to defer to local
responders.
Which is an interesting historical revision to the usual narrative of
"The New Orleans/ Louisiana responders were lazy and incompetent." It's
also rather instructive to compare the response of the Bush
Administration in Louisiana to that same Administration's response to four
hurricanes in Florida in 2004 (A swing state in an election year,
and yes, "Brownie" was in charge of FEMA then, too). BTW, The
Governor of Lousiana asked President Bush to declare a "state of
emergency" after Mayor Nagin had declared one for New Orleans at
5:00pm on August 27th, the hurricane
struck just after midnight [on the 28th].
Update: Ah-ha! This talking point comes from Karl
Rove:
The federal response to Katrina
was governed by the 1988 Stafford Act,
which says that in natural disasters on-shore states are in charge...
Why, of course, this law
created any sort of problem
is not specified in Rove's piece.
Democrats criticized President
George W. Bush for waiting four days after Katrina to go to New
Orleans.
Not precisely. When Bush made a personal appearance was beside the
point. The point was that the Federal Government very, very badly slacked off and failed
to do anything.
Looks like
President Obama is getting
rea-a-aly
tired of the Republican Party and seems to have lost his
taste for bipartisanship. Good!!! 'Bout frakin' time!!!
For a woman to decide that
her unborn child takes precedence over her own life would deserve to be
honored in song and legend. But
for
someone
else
to
insist that her life counted for less than that
of said unborn child? Nope, sorry, wrong answer.
Very interesting
juxtaposition of a scare-mongering
headline from the camp of the deficit scolds with a cartoon showing
us the very real and serious reason why the headlne is BS.
Problem with saying the
government should
have
acted
quickly to take over the emergency response to the BP
spill, there's not a whole lot of evidence that the Minerals Management
Service was ready and equipped to do much better. Granted:
The department's acting inspector
general, Mary L. Kendall, emphasized
that all of the misconduct occurred before the Obama administration
took office in January 2009. The Interior Department's efforts to clean
up the MMS have been ongoing, and the agency's ethics code was
overhauled soon after the transition between administrations.
But with the news "that
MMS
was
still
issuing
new
permits despite the supposed moratorium,"
I dunno about that.
Sarah Palin is convincd
that Susan
B. Anthony was an antiabortionist. Was she? Not
at
all
clear as Anthony never specifically addressed the issue.
Anthony spent no time on the
politics of abortion. It was of no
interest to her, despite living in a society (and a family) where women
aborted unwanted pregnancies.
The List's mission statement proclaims, "Although [Anthony] is known
for helping women win the right to vote, it is often untold in history
that she and most early feminists were
strongly pro-life." There's a good
reason it's "untold:" historians and
good journalists rely on evidence. Of which there is none.
[emphasis added]
Update: Jessica Valenti tells us that Sarah Palin's "feminism" is completely
fake.
Very large portion of oil
spilled by BP into Gulf of Mexico could
very
likely
remain
several
hundred
feet
below
the
surface for
decades. Live
feed of oil gusher finally set up. BP refused to test the
well before disaster.
Extremely sad that the NY
Times would go with a plainly
partisan,
obviously
incomplete
hit
piece of a story. The concepts
of "Due Diligence" and the priority of avoiding "Dereliction of Duty"
don't appear to be working concepts anymore.
Problem with Rand Paul's
(Republican Senatorial candidate from Ketucky) evident feeling that for
businesses to observe
the
law, specifically the 1964 Civil Rights Act is just a terribly
unfair burden. Rachel Maddow asked:
"Do
you
think
a
private
business
has
the
right
to
put
up
a
'Blacks
Not
Serverd
Sign?'"
to
which
Paul
hemmed
and
hawwed
and
filibustered
and
danced
around
the
question. Paul is very clearly uncomfortable
denouncing those who oppose the Act. The
essential
problem
appears
to
be that Paul doesn't approve of
violence but thinks private businesses should be able to control who,
for instance, sits at their lunch counters, but doesn't seem to realize
that it was the refusal of African-Americans to be excluded from such
basic dignities and the refusal of whites to allow them their dignity
that led to the violence. Major problem is that Paul confuses speech with the action of denying services, i.e.,
being able to sit at a lunch counter. Paul now supports the Civil
Rights Act, but
still
not
clear that he has addressed or even understands the above
question.
So what does a person have
to carry
with him/her in Arizona in order to be presumed a legal US citizen? A
driver's license will work, but
only
if
it's
from
Arizona. If it's from another state, you're outta
luck and presumed to be an illegal.
Latest on BP
oil well blow-out. Absolute effin' calamity!!!
Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit
and Sarah Palin have
both
had
it with the "lamestream media" and it's "lies" and
"distortions," etc. Problem: Neither one is remotely qualified to make
prononcements on what constitutes good journalism.
The rumor that Elena Kagan
is gay
is firmly
debunked by a close friend of hers who knew her back in college and
the friend says Kagan's sexual interests were definitely hetero. The
media presents a picture of people who have been
wildly irresponsible, people who ran with the rumor that Kagan was
gay, knowing full well that there was no evidence to back it up and
that the White House had explicitly denied it. These people seem so desperate to gin up a scandal,
to create a buzz, it'd be quite sad. Problem is, they're doing it on an
important subject. A Supreme Court Justice of Kagan's age and health
can expect to be on the Court from 30 to 40 years. Good
round-up
on
dispute between blogger/lawyer Glenn Greenwald and
Professor of Law and friend of Kagan Lawrence Lessig. BTW, of the 111
Supeme Court Justices, at least 38 did
not have any prior judicial exprience. So the idea that judicial
experience is a necessity is nonsense.
Elena Kagan nominated
for
Supreme
Court
Justice to replace Justice Stevens. Considerably less
than
thrilled by the choice. She's a
...blank slate,
institution-loyal, seemingly principle-free careerist who
spent the last 15 months as the Obama administration's lawyer
vigorously defending every one of his assertions of extremely broad
executive authority.
Very happy to see that the
whole
ridiculous "Obama Administration's reaction to the BP oil spill is just like Bush Administration's
reaction to Hurricane Katrina" is dying
a
long-overdue
and
well-deserved
death. There are plenty of real
and serious criticisms for us to make about the current president
without making up a bunch of stupid crap.
June 26th, America Speaks will
feature
national
meetings designed to engage in pushback against
the deficit scolds.
Round-up of news on the BP
oil spill. Firedoglake has a page dedicated to
the problem.
Daily Beast had a
good
piece on the White House Correspondents Dinner (President
Obama did an apparently awesomely kewl comedy sketch), but wow!
Politico did 84
separate
stories on it?!?!?!
Doesn't strike me as a controversial
statement:
...if we emerge from the spill of the Deepwater Horizon with anything
less
than a permanent moratorium on expanded offshore oil drilling, and
climate change energy policies moving forward without this drilling
built in, than Obama will have permanently discredited himself with the
environment, and, further, as a guardian of the public interest.
Fellow activist from Philly
Against War writes
on
catastrophe in Gulf.
The people in charge of the
Federal Reserve have proven to be
completely
and
utterly
incapable of doing their jobs. The Fed needs
to be audited, NOW!!!!!
Hmm, seems to be a real
energetic effort underway to whitewash the Bush
legacy.
Uh, no. You
can't
revoke
the
citizenship of the children of undocumented
immigrants when they're born in the US. They're referred to as "anchor babies" and
their citizenship is entirely legal.
It's good to keep in mind,
with the massive
and continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, that the darling of
the right wing, Sarah Palin, made one of her most memorable sayings
during the 2008 campaign and it was "Drill, baby,
drill!"
Major League Baseball
Players Association decides
that as they have many Hispanic players who don't want to be
looking over their shoulders in Arizona, that they just don't need to
play baseball there.
White House puts
itself
on
the
wrong
side of the "Audit the Fed" Amendment.
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