link to counterpunch.org

personally, I do understand the sentiment of “the pox on both your houses” that animate the tea baggers. But turning away is not a solution either.

Alas, I am more of a dianostician than a true activist. Due to entirely practical personal considerations rather than inclination. i realize that the disease is much easier to diagnose than to cure. of course, I’d totally favor Obama acting like a real mensche when it comes to israel, just as you suggest, but especially since I know Israelis only understand the language of power- and I know he may just succeed, were he both brave and carefree enough to take this course (meaning he would likely be short lived too). In any case, it is precisely the likelihood of success of a strong arm policy from the US that sends israel and friends in the US to work overtime to weaken Obama – any way they can.

Perhaps not all is lost though. If the different interests actually succeed in really paralyzing the government, even as the “people” (cf regular citizens) continue to suffer from the downturn that no one can or dares cure, perhaps there might just be a new window of opportunity to blow new winds into sails into public financing idea. I know this is one of the things Howard Dean and his DFA group support and is what Ron paul and Kucinich support as well. It is what most rank and file democrats support as do libertarians (the real not the pretend ones) and not a few republicans even. The day of the outsiders may yet come, now that Obama, the great white hope, has somewhat wilted in the limelight.

BTW, did you read Chris Hays’ column in The nation on System Failure and Corporatism? worth a read.

link to thenation.com

While trying to find that brief reference to the war the US just had to start, this quote popped up– Israel being Israel: link to almashriq.hiof.no

Tapline operations were particularly lucrative when the Suez Canal was shut down after the 1967 war with Israel, because it was much less costly to ship oil to market through the pipeline via the Mediterranean than around the Cape of Good Hope. I should note that for accounting purposes, Tapline operations did not show a profit; any profit went to its parents (Mobil, Texaco, Exxon, and Chevron). Government pressures for increased fees were espexcially heavy then. However, before the reopening of the Suez Canal (about 1975), Tapline began to face growing competition from super-tankers, which with advantages of economy of scale and no transit fees or services could carry oil from the Gulf around the Cape at lower cost than the cost of pumping oil through Tapline. Eventually, this competition, and also security problems resulting from the Lebanese civil war that began in 1975, resulted in the closing of Tapline operations. However, the company did continue to pump oil to Zerqa in Jordan as mentioned below and the company was not actually abandoned to the governments under basic agreements until the 1980s.

As a result of an Israeli action, Tapline operations were closed down for some time after Israel occupied Golan (through which Tapline passed) in the 1967 war. An Israeli tractor “accidentally” ruptured the line and Israel refused to allow the repair until Tapline agreed to make a special payment for Israel’s benefit. This was handled by an American negotiator who acted for the comtany but was not a company employee. Syria and the other transit governments were pragmatic about this inclident and did not interfere with the negotiations with Israel in a way that would have delayed the repair job and a decrease in transit fees.

As for the tea-baggers, you are right about how it started. One of my points above was that no sooner a populist movement rises that the powers-that-be will attempt to co-opt and harness its energy for their own causes – which are exactly what the populists were against in the first place. What’s going on now is a major campaign by the republican party apparatus to divert the populist anger to where they want it aimed, namely Obama. Hence the attempt to conflate bank bail-outs, rising deficits and hand-outs to special interests with the current administration. I see an obvious try at re-casting the populist narrative. The neocons are obviously keen to infiltrate the populist movement as well, though so far with very limited success. hence the frum frustration.

My warning has to do with what happens if republicans succeed in their goal of derailing the climb out of recession, which is obviously what their entire thrust is. They see poor economic conditions as playing into their hands – just as it brought down Bush, so they hope it can bring down Obama. My worry is that encouraging economic deterioration – which is what the republicans are up to – is a slippery slope indeed. Once it sets course, it’s far from clear that they’ll be able to ride the disenchantment wave back to power.