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Total number of comments: 3836 (since 2009-08-03 02:01:29)

DICKERSON3870

Georgia Tech, B.S. / Mercer U., J.D.

Website: http://www.facebook.com/jlewisdickerson

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• Israel lobby's favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status for millions
  • DICKERSON3870 May 26, 2012 at 9:02 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "He [Mark Kirk] lied about being shot at while in the
    military." ~ Citizen

    MY COMMENT: Being a chronic liar certainly makes Mark Rich superbly qualified to be a lackey for AIPAC! "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us!" ~ Neocon Creed

    CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/03/13:
    

    (excerpt) Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk accepted responsibility Thursday for a series of misstatements about his Navy Reserve career, including that he served in the Gulf War, that he once commanded the Pentagon war room and that he came under fire while flying intelligence missions over Iraq. . .

    SOURCE - link to articles.chicagotribune.com

    ALSO SEE: Congressman Mark Kirk Lies About Everything, By Dan Amira, New York, 6/18/10
    

    A few weeks ago, an Illinois Republican congressman in the midst of a senate campaign, Mark Kirk, graciously took the heat off of Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal by "exaggerating" his military service even more flagrantly than Blumenthal had. Kirk had said he won the Navy's "Intelligence Officer of the Year" award, which he didn't! But that wasn't all. As reporters dug into his background, more embellishments were revealed. He said he was fired on the last time he visited Iraq. He wasn't! He said he served in Operation Desert Storm. He was a reservist in Maryland! Now Kirk's refusal to state any of his life experiences accurately has extended into non-military biographical details, like the time he "taught" nursery school in upstate New York.
    The 'Times' reports today that, though Kirk has frequently spoken about his time as a nursery school teacher, an administrator at the Ithaca church where Kirk "taught" says he "was never, ever considered a teacher." He was just a work-study student from Cornell who acted as "an additional pair of hands to help a primary teaching person.” Eight other members of the church from that time, including two pastors, fail to remember there being a male teacher either. So what else has Kirk embellished about his life? Is he even really a congressman? Does he even exist?

    SOURCE - link to nymag.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 26, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    RE: "Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status for millions"

    FROM Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12: "Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?"
    

    (excerpts) A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it. . .
    . . .Even now, the national infrastructure for effective caring is too weak. If the Progressive Caucus and the groups that support it effectively exercised all the functions of a political party, the fact that Norman Solomon is a candidate for Congress with a serious possibility of winning would be foremost in the consciousness of every pragmatic peace advocate in the United States. Every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman is running, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that there is a primary on June 5 and that voting by mail is already underway, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman will survive the primary if he places second, every pragmatic peace advocate would understand why it matters if Norman survives the primary, and every pragmatic peace advocate would be doing their bit to help ensure that Norman survives the primary. . .
    . . .I am looking forward to Norman going to Congress because I know that Norman will work to raise the profile of the Progressive Caucus and will work to help make the Progressive Caucus more effective. Right now progressives in Congress are fighting to end the wars, to prevent war with Iran, to curtail drone strikes, to cut the military budget and redirect the money to human needs. But too few progressives in the country even know these fights are taking place, still fewer are engaged in them. With Norman in the Progressive Caucus, with Norman on TV, more people would know about these fights and more people would be engaged in them.
    Having Norman in Congress would do a lot to help build the progressive movement for political reform in this country. Check out his website. - link to solomonforcongress.com
    Think about what you could do to help move the ball forward.*

    SOURCE - link to commondreams.org

    * I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. - link to secure.actblue.com
    

• Aaron David Miller: After a short 'peace process,' look for war with Iran in 2013
  • DICKERSON3870 May 26, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    RE: "so 'iran is insecure but believes it is profoundly entitled' and its 'mix of vulnerability and grandiosity is a bad combination.' but hasn’t the author made a typing error, since far more than iran his description fits the apartheid entity israel?" ~ yourstruly

    MY COMMENT: Israel's "Samson Option" certainly seems to be the product of a "mix of vulnerability and grandiosity" that is a very bad combination!

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Samson Option, as of 5/25/12]:
    

    (excerpts) The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well.[1] . . .
    . . . Some have written about the "Samson Option" as a retaliation strategy. In 2002, the "Los Angeles Times" published an opinion piece by Louisiana State University professor David Perlmutter which has been seen as justifying a Samson Option approach.[19] He wrote:
    

    "Israel has been building nuclear weapons for 30 years. The Jews understand what passive and powerless acceptance of doom has meant for them in the past, and they have ensured against it. Masada was not an example to follow—it hurt the Romans not a whit, but Samson in Gaza? What would serve the Jew-hating world better in repayment for thousands of years of massacres but a Nuclear Winter. . .[20]

    . . . In 2003, Martin van Creveld [professor of military history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem - J.L.D.] thought that the Al-Aqsa Intifada then in progress threatened Israel's existence.[21] Van Creveld was quoted in David Hirst's "The Gun and the Olive Branch" (2003) as saying:
    

    "We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. . . Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under."[22]

    Ron Rosenbaum writes in his 2012 book How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III that in the "aftermath of a second Holocaust" Israel's surviving Dophin-class nuclear missile submarines would retaliate not only against Israel's attackers, but "bring down the pillars of the world (attack Moscow and European capitals for instance)" as well as the "holy places of Islam." He writes that "abandonment of proportionality is the essence" of the Samson Option.[23] . . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    ALSO SEE - "The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy"
    LINK - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Iranian talks fail after neocon 'blitz' -- as Obama dispatches aide to reassure Tel Aviv
  • DICKERSON3870 May 25, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    P.S. ALSO SEE: Three congressional challengers very worth supporting, by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, 3/29/12
    

    (excerpts) . . . Norman Solomon
    The long-time anti-war activist, co-founder of the great media criticism group FAIR, and author of “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State” – a critique of America’s decades of militarism and the role which its media plays in perpetuating it — is about as close to a perfect Congressional candidate as it gets. He’s written 11 other books, including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death”: the title speaks for itself. He’s running in the heavily Democratic California district being vacated by the retiring Rep. Lynn Woolsey. A newly released poll from an independent Democratic pollster shows him with a serious chance to win (there is an open primary in June, and the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will then face each other in a November run-off).
    In 2002 and 2003, Solomon led three trips to Iraq to try to avert the war (trips that included former and current members of Congress), and was one of the most widely featured media voices during that period opposing the attack on moral, legal and prudential grounds. . .
    . . . Solomon demands diplomacy, not threats of military force, to resolve the current disputes with Iran. He decries the lack of criminal prosecutions for Wall Street defrauders and Bush torturers as a violation of the rule of law. . .
    . . .When it comes to Congressional candidates, it just doesn’t get any better than Norman Solomon. If you have any residual doubt, just look at this remarkable 2007 TV appearance he did on CNN with Glenn Beck, which he wrote about here, when he used the opportunity to detail and denounce the effect of corporate ownership of America’s establishment media (including CNN). He’s been doing this for 30 years and there’s zero chance he will change or compromise any of it if he wins. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to have Norman Solomon in Congress, but I’d certainly like to see it. You can — and, I hope, will — support his campaign here. - link to secure.actblue.com

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to salon.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 25, 2012 at 5:50 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Iranian talks fail after neocon ‘blitz’ — as Obama dispatches aide to reassure Tel Aviv" ~ Weiss

    FROM Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12:
    "Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?"
    

    (excerpts) A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it. . .
    . . .Even now, the national infrastructure for effective caring is too weak. If the Progressive Caucus and the groups that support it effectively exercised all the functions of a political party, the fact that Norman Solomon is a candidate for Congress with a serious possibility of winning would be foremost in the consciousness of every pragmatic peace advocate in the United States. Every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman is running, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that there is a primary on June 5 and that voting by mail is already underway, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman will survive the primary if he places second, every pragmatic peace advocate would understand why it matters if Norman survives the primary, and every pragmatic peace advocate would be doing their bit to help ensure that Norman survives the primary. . .
    . . .I am looking forward to Norman going to Congress because I know that Norman will work to raise the profile of the Progressive Caucus and will work to help make the Progressive Caucus more effective. Right now progressives in Congress are fighting to end the wars, to prevent war with Iran, to curtail drone strikes, to cut the military budget and redirect the money to human needs. But too few progressives in the country even know these fights are taking place, still fewer are engaged in them.
    With Norman in the Progressive Caucus, with Norman on TV, more people would know about these fights and more people would be engaged in them.
    Having Norman in Congress would do a lot to help build the progressive movement for political reform in this country. Check out his website. - link to solomonforcongress.com
    Think about what you could do to help move the ball forward.*

    SOURCE - link to commondreams.org

    * I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. - link to secure.actblue.com
    

• Saving Illinois from Senator Kirk
  • DICKERSON3870 May 25, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    P.S. ALSO SEE: Three congressional challengers very worth supporting, by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, 3/29/12
    

    (excerpts) . . . Norman Solomon
    The long-time anti-war activist, co-founder of the great media criticism group FAIR, and author of “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State” – a critique of America’s decades of militarism and the role which its media plays in perpetuating it — is about as close to a perfect Congressional candidate as it gets. He’s written 11 other books, including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death”: the title speaks for itself. He’s running in the heavily Democratic California district being vacated by the retiring Rep. Lynn Woolsey. A newly released poll from an independent Democratic pollster shows him with a serious chance to win (there is an open primary in June, and the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will then face each other in a November run-off).
    In 2002 and 2003, Solomon led three trips to Iraq to try to avert the war (trips that included former and current members of Congress), and was one of the most widely featured media voices during that period opposing the attack on moral, legal and prudential grounds. . .
    . . . Solomon demands diplomacy, not threats of military force, to resolve the current disputes with Iran. He decries the lack of criminal prosecutions for Wall Street defrauders and Bush torturers as a violation of the rule of law. . .
    . . .When it comes to Congressional candidates, it just doesn’t get any better than Norman Solomon. If you have any residual doubt, just look at this remarkable 2007 TV appearance he did on CNN with Glenn Beck, which he wrote about here, when he used the opportunity to detail and denounce the effect of corporate ownership of America’s establishment media (including CNN). He’s been doing this for 30 years and there’s zero chance he will change or compromise any of it if he wins. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to have Norman Solomon in Congress, but I’d certainly like to see it. You can — and, I hope, will — support his campaign here. - link to secure.actblue.com

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to salon.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 25, 2012 at 5:47 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Saving Illinois from Senator Kirk"

    FROM Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12:
    "Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?"
    

    (excerpts) A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it. . .
    . . .Even now, the national infrastructure for effective caring is too weak. If the Progressive Caucus and the groups that support it effectively exercised all the functions of a political party, the fact that Norman Solomon is a candidate for Congress with a serious possibility of winning would be foremost in the consciousness of every pragmatic peace advocate in the United States. Every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman is running, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that there is a primary on June 5 and that voting by mail is already underway, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman will survive the primary if he places second, every pragmatic peace advocate would understand why it matters if Norman survives the primary, and every pragmatic peace advocate would be doing their bit to help ensure that Norman survives the primary. . .
    . . .I am looking forward to Norman going to Congress because I know that Norman will work to raise the profile of the Progressive Caucus and will work to help make the Progressive Caucus more effective. Right now progressives in Congress are fighting to end the wars, to prevent war with Iran, to curtail drone strikes, to cut the military budget and redirect the money to human needs. But too few progressives in the country even know these fights are taking place, still fewer are engaged in them.
    With Norman in the Progressive Caucus, with Norman on TV, more people would know about these fights and more people would be engaged in them.
    Having Norman in Congress would do a lot to help build the progressive movement for political reform in this country. Check out his website. - link to solomonforcongress.com
    Think about what you could do to help move the ball forward.*

    SOURCE - link to commondreams.org

    * I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. - link to secure.actblue.com
    

• Honest broker? Israeli consulate sponsors Obama's former Middle East peace adviser at Stanford talk!
  • DICKERSON3870 May 25, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    RE: "Greenwald has picked three good candidates, Solomon and also one runing in my state ~ American

    SEE: Three congressional challengers very worth supporting, by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, 3/29/12
    

    (excerpts) . . . Norman Solomon
    The long-time anti-war activist, co-founder of the great media criticism group FAIR, and author of “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State” – a critique of America’s decades of militarism and the role which its media plays in perpetuating it — is about as close to a perfect Congressional candidate as it gets. He’s written 11 other books, including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death”: the title speaks for itself. He’s running in the heavily Democratic California district being vacated by the retiring Rep. Lynn Woolsey. A newly released poll from an independent Democratic pollster shows him with a serious chance to win (there is an open primary in June, and the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will then face each other in a November run-off).
    In 2002 and 2003, Solomon led three trips to Iraq to try to avert the war (trips that included former and current members of Congress), and was one of the most widely featured media voices during that period opposing the attack on moral, legal and prudential grounds. . .
    . . . Solomon demands diplomacy, not threats of military force, to resolve the current disputes with Iran. He decries the lack of criminal prosecutions for Wall Street defrauders and Bush torturers as a violation of the rule of law. . .
    . . .When it comes to Congressional candidates, it just doesn’t get any better than Norman Solomon. If you have any residual doubt, just look at this remarkable 2007 TV appearance he did on CNN with Glenn Beck, which he wrote about here, when he used the opportunity to detail and denounce the effect of corporate ownership of America’s establishment media (including CNN). He’s been doing this for 30 years and there’s zero chance he will change or compromise any of it if he wins. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to have Norman Solomon in Congress, but I’d certainly like to see it. You can — and, I hope, will — support his campaign here. - link to secure.actblue.com

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to salon.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 5:35 pm with 4 replies

    RE: "Honest broker? Israeli consulate sponsors Obama’s former Middle East peace adviser at Stanford talk!" ~ Weiss

    FROM Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12:
    "Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?"
    

    (excerpts) A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it. . .
    . . .Even now, the national infrastructure for effective caring is too weak. If the Progressive Caucus and the groups that support it effectively exercised all the functions of a political party, the fact that Norman Solomon is a candidate for Congress with a serious possibility of winning would be foremost in the consciousness of every pragmatic peace advocate in the United States. Every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman is running, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that there is a primary on June 5 and that voting by mail is already underway, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman will survive the primary if he places second, every pragmatic peace advocate would understand why it matters if Norman survives the primary, and every pragmatic peace advocate would be doing their bit to help ensure that Norman survives the primary. . .
    . . .I am looking forward to Norman going to Congress because I know that Norman will work to raise the profile of the Progressive Caucus and will work to help make the Progressive Caucus more effective. Right now progressives in Congress are fighting to end the wars, to prevent war with Iran, to curtail drone strikes, to cut the military budget and redirect the money to human needs. But too few progressives in the country even know these fights are taking place, still fewer are engaged in them. With Norman in the Progressive Caucus, with Norman on TV, more people would know about these fights and more people would be engaged in them.
    Having Norman in Congress would do a lot to help build the progressive movement for political reform in this country. Check out his website. - link to solomonforcongress.com
    Think about what you could do to help move the ball forward.*

    SOURCE - link to commondreams.org

    * I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. - link to secure.actblue.com
    

• Avigdor Lieberman to Jews worldwide: 'You must love me'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 24, 2012 at 10:40 am

    RE: "Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday to a Jewish audience in London that he expects Jewish communities around the world to support whatever Israeli government is in power, regardless of its views." ~ Haaretz

    MY COMMENT: In other words, all Jews everywhere must march in lockstep as if they were prisoners at Sing Sing under the "Auburn system"* of the early 1800s! Now mush! Mush!
    "I've been workin' on the chain gang, all the live long day!
    Hooh! Aah! Hooh! Aah! That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang."
    Chain Gang, Sam Cooke (VIDEO, 02:38) - link to youtube.com

    * FROM WIKIPEDIA [ Auburn system]:
    

    (excerpts) The Auburn system (also known as the New York System) is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. . .
    . . . The Auburn system established several characteristics that were unique to the world of disciplinary conditions. Silence was the biggest factor in the line of rules the prisoners had to follow. [John D.] Cray wanted the prisoners to be completely silent. This lack of speaking takes away the prisoners' “sense of self”. When the “sense of self” was taken away, many convicts became complacent and obedient to the warden's wishes. . .

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Lockstep]:
    

    (excerpt) Lockstep marching or simply lockstep refers to marching, in the USA, in a very close single file in such a way that the leg of each person in the file moves in the same way and at the same time as the corresponding leg of the person immediately in front of him, so that their legs stay very close all the time.
    Originally it was used in drilling soldiers. Each soldier stepped on the point just vacated by the foot of the soldier in front of him. Thus the soldiers stayed in position to form close files.[1]
    Lockstep marching was a characteristic trait of American prisons of the 19th century.[2] "Inmates formed in single file, right hand on the shoulder of the man in front, left hand on the side; the convicts then stepped off in unison, raising the right foot high and shuffling with the left."[3] The reason for the shuffling step was the chain that connected the legs of a chain gang. . .

• Why 'Brand Israel' is failing
  • DICKERSON3870 May 24, 2012 at 11:09 am with 1 replies

    RE: "It is hard to know what Shalom Eisner -- an Israeli army officer -- was thinking when he brutalized a Danish bike protester several weeks ago. Probably his thoughts tracked what he was doing -- which is to say they weren't anything out of the ordinary. The Israeli officer was acting normally, on a normal day, in the normalized context of Israeli occupation." ~ Ahmed Moor

    FROM PAUL WOODWARD, War in Context, 4/17/12
    

    (excerpt) A soldier is on the battlefield, face-to-face with the enemy — but he’s run out of ammunition. How’s he going to engage in what could be the final fight for his life?
    If he’s an Israeli soldier he’ll most likely employ the no-holds-barred Krav Maga, one of the world’s deadliest hand-to-hand combat styles. This technique derived from street-fighting skills developed by Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler, as a means of defending Bratislava’s Jewish quarter against attacks by fascist groups in the 1930s.
    This is what Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, deputy commander of the IDF’s Jordan Valley brigade, resorted to when faced with the “threat” posed by a bunch of kids on bicycles on Saturday afternoon.
    Eisner might have appeared to have lost control but his was what might be called measured brutality — restrained enough not to kill or to fracture a peaceful protester’s skull.
    The following video shows Israelis training in the technique the lieutenant colonel employed.*
    Amir Mizroch is the editor of the English Newsletter Edition of "Israel Hayom", Israel’s most widely-read Hebrew daily newspaper. He says the blow that Eisner delivered to Andreas Ias, an ISM activist participating in the Jordan Valley cycle tour, is a Krav Maga blow that IDF recruits are taught in their first week of basic training. . .

    * ENTIRE COMMENTARY AND VIDEO (01:09) - link to warincontext.org

• Philip Roth on the Israel lobby
  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    RE: "Philip Roth on the Israel lobby" ~ Weiss

    FROM Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12:
    "Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?"
    

    (excerpts) A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it. . .
    . . .Even now, the national infrastructure for effective caring is too weak. If the Progressive Caucus and the groups that support it effectively exercised all the functions of a political party, the fact that Norman Solomon is a candidate for Congress with a serious possibility of winning would be foremost in the consciousness of every pragmatic peace advocate in the United States. Every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman is running, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that there is a primary on June 5 and that voting by mail is already underway, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman will survive the primary if he places second, every pragmatic peace advocate would understand why it matters if Norman survives the primary, and every pragmatic peace advocate would be doing their bit to help ensure that Norman survives the primary. . .
    . . .I am looking forward to Norman going to Congress because I know that Norman will work to raise the profile of the Progressive Caucus and will work to help make the Progressive Caucus more effective. Right now progressives in Congress are fighting to end the wars, to prevent war with Iran, to curtail drone strikes, to cut the military budget and redirect the money to human needs. But too few progressives in the country even know these fights are taking place, still fewer are engaged in them. With Norman in the Progressive Caucus, with Norman on TV, more people would know about these fights and more people would be engaged in them.
    Having Norman in Congress would do a lot to help build the progressive movement for political reform in this country. Check out his website. - link to solomonforcongress.com
    Think about what you could do to help move the ball forward.*

    SOURCE - link to commondreams.org

    * I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. - link to secure.actblue.com
    

• If Obama really has things under control, then why the loose talk from CentCom's Mattis?
  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    RE: "If Obama really has things under control, then why the loose talk from CentCom’s Mattis?" ~ Weiss

    FROM ROBERT NAIMAN, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12:
    "Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?"
    

    (excerpts) A key paradox for progressives of our national political life goes something like this: everybody complains about Congress, but nobody does anything about it. . .
    . . .Even now, the national infrastructure for effective caring is too weak. If the Progressive Caucus and the groups that support it effectively exercised all the functions of a political party, the fact that Norman Solomon is a candidate for Congress with a serious possibility of winning would be foremost in the consciousness of every pragmatic peace advocate in the United States. Every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman is running, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that there is a primary on June 5 and that voting by mail is already underway, every pragmatic peace advocate would know that Norman will survive the primary if he places second, every pragmatic peace advocate would understand why it matters if Norman survives the primary, and every pragmatic peace advocate would be doing their bit to help ensure that Norman survives the primary. . .
    . . .I am looking forward to Norman going to Congress because I know that Norman will work to raise the profile of the Progressive Caucus and will work to help make the Progressive Caucus more effective. Right now progressives in Congress are fighting to end the wars, to prevent war with Iran, to curtail drone strikes, to cut the military budget and redirect the money to human needs. But too few progressives in the country even know these fights are taking place, still fewer are engaged in them. With Norman in the Progressive Caucus, with Norman on TV, more people would know about these fights and more people would be engaged in them.
    Having Norman in Congress would do a lot to help build the progressive movement for political reform in this country. Check out his website. - link to solomonforcongress.com
    Think about what you could do to help move the ball forward.*

    SOURCE - link to commondreams.org

    * I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. - link to secure.actblue.com
    

  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    RE: "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. . . " ~ James Mattis, the “warrior monk”

    FROM YNET NEWS – Rabbi Aviner: Women must not wear pants even when alone, by Neta Sela, 05/02/08
    One of Religious Zionism’s most prominent leaders defines trousers as a ‘self-prohibition,’ says women ‘must dress modestly also when alone and in the dark’
    

    [EXCERPT] Women must not wear pants even when they are home alone, Rabbi Shlomi Aviner has ruled.  Aviner, Beit El’s rabbi and one of Religious Zionism’s most prominent leaders, was asked in a cellular Q&A session published in the “Small World” bulletin, “When a girl goes to relieve herself at night, is she allowed to say the ‘Asher Yatzar’ (‘he who formed’) prayer while wearing a short-sleeved shirt and trousers?”  The rabbi replied that it is permitted to say the prayer in such a case, but added that “in general, a woman must always wear modest clothes even when she is alone and in the dark, because the Holy one blessed be he is everywhere. And yes, trousers are a self-prohibition even when a woman is alone.” . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to ynet.co.il

    P.S. I wonder what Barbara Streisand will have to say about this. That is, if Babs can tear herself away from raising money for the IDF long enough to read about what is actually going on in Israel.

• U.S. and Israel coordinate-- and signal hard line in Iran talks
  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 4:18 pm

    RE: "Vice President Joseph Biden told a gathering of the powerful Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations that the U.S. will soon be sending a group of senior policy and security officials to Israel. The Americans will be coordinating positions for the Iran negotiations with the Israelis." ~ Ira Glunts

    MY COMMENT: I'm shocked. I'm truly shocked. NOT!

    FROM THE TRANSCRIPT OF A TELEPHONE CALL IN 1992 INVOLVING DAVID STEINER, AIPAC'S PRESIDENT AT THE TIME (POSTED ON M.J. ROSENBERG'S BLOG):
    

    (excerpt)...HAIM KATZ: "If Clinton is elected, has he told you who he’s going to put on the Supreme Court?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We’re talking now. We don’t have no commitments yet. We’re just negotiating. We’re more interested right now, in the secretary of state and the secretary of National Security Agency. That’s more important to us."
    HAIM KATZ: "If Clinton is elected, who do you think will be secretary of state?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We don’t know yet, we’re negotiating."
    HAIM KATZ: "Who are you hoping for?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I’ve got a list. But I really can’t go through it. I’m not allowed to talk about it."
    HAIM KATZ: "But you figure, God willing, if Clinton’s elected . . ."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We’ll have access."
    HAIM KATZ: "You’ll have access and you’ll have a good input into who’s secretary of state."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I do believe so."
    HAIM KATZ: "And the other position is. . ."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "National security adviser."
    HAIM KATZ: "Those are the two critical positions."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "Right."

    SOURCE - link to mjayrosenberg.com

• Israel Land Administration charged with race and gender discrimination
  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 3:23 pm with 2 replies

    P.S. ALSO SEE: Women noticeably absent from Jerusalem ads, By Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 10/21/11
    Municipality officials deny change in policy, refer to several campaigns that featured images of women. Yet figures in city's public relations industry say women have been entirely removed from public billboards and advertisements.
    

    (excerpt) It appears that graphic artists and public relations professionals in Jerusalem have recently developed a fetish for shoes.
    A glance at billboards and posters pasted around the city shows that Jerusalem is draped in shoes. For instance, announcements for the annual Jerusalem March picture two men's shoes against the backdrop of the city. Dance events also make use of shoe images.
    "In Jerusalem, a shoe is not just a shoe," says Uri Ayalon, a Conservative rabbi who promotes religious pluralism, and who recently established an "uncensored" Facebook group that protests against the elimination of women from public spaces. Shoe images, he says, are used to obscure the fact that in Jerusalem women are rarely pictured on public posters and billboards.
    It takes time to grasp that something is missing in public spaces in Israel's capital. But once you notice it, it's hard to fathom how you didn't pay attention to this fact earlier. It appears that in recent years, and in an escalated fashion in the past several months, women have disappeared from advertisements in Jerusalem. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to haaretz.com

    P.S. I wonder what Barbara Streisand will have to say about this. That is, if Babs can tear herself away from raising money for the IDF long enough to read about what is actually going on in Israel.

  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 3:13 pm with 3 replies

    RE: "Israel Land Administration charged with race and gender discrimination... At the time of filing the suit, all of the council's 22 members were Jewish men" ~ Allison Deger

    MY COMMENT: Accusing Israel of gender discrimination is a blood libel!
    A blood libel!
    A blood libel!
    A blood libel!

    FROM YNET NEWS – Rabbi Aviner: Women must not wear pants even when alone, by Neta Sela, 05/02/08
    One of Religious Zionism’s most prominent leaders defines trousers as a ‘self-prohibition,’ says women ‘must dress
    modestly also when alone and in the dark’
    

    (EXCERPT) Women must not wear pants even when they are home alone, Rabbi Shlomi Aviner has ruled.  Aviner, Beit El’s rabbi and one of Religious Zionism’s most prominent leaders, was asked in a cellular Q&A session published in the “Small World” bulletin, “When a girl goes to relieve herself at night, is she allowed to say the ‘Asher Yatzar’ (‘he who formed’) prayer while wearing a short-sleeved shirt and trousers?”  The rabbi replied that it is permitted to say the prayer in such a case, but added that “in general, a woman must always wear modest clothes even when she is alone and in the dark, because the Holy one blessed be he is everywhere. And yes, trousers are a self-prohibition even when a woman is alone.” . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to ynet.co.il

• 'Where is my children’s democracy?' The Jilani family speaks out two years after the execution of Ziad
  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 2:55 pm

    RE: "Ziad’s wife Moira is helping to lead a campaign calling
    for justice for Ziad and the prosecution of the Israeli police officers who shot him." ~ Alex Kane

    Take Action
    Together, we can change history.
    But we need your help to spread this story.
    This is what you can do:

    • Sign the petition to demand that the Israeli State Prosecutor charges Maxim for murder in the death of Ziad Jilani. - link to change.org

    • Share the petition on facebook. - link to change.org

    • Tweet about the campaign. - link to twitter.com

    SOURCE - link to killingwithoutconsequence.com

• Bill Clinton's $80 million swagbag includes some dough from 'Israel First' interests
  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    RE: "And frankly, they pretty much poohpooh the power of countless other lobbies that have Washington virtually hogtied, resulting in what political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls 'inverted totalitarianism'." - me (above)

    SEE: Snarling Banks, by Jim Hightower, Common Dreams, 5/23/12
    

    (excerpt) . . . Very few Americans on this side of the ATM machine think that the biggest problem in Washington is that the moneychangers don't have enough clout. But, incredibly, here they come with a super PAC intended to force lawmakers to bow even deeper to their needs.
    "Congress isn't afraid of bankers," declared one of the bank honchos who organized the Friends of Traditional Banking super PAC. "They don't think we'll do anything to kick them out of office," he said, but that's exactly the plan.
    In a dramatic and wholly destructive escalation of Big Money's assault on America's democracy, FTB's funders are not out to support candidates, but "to defeat our enemies." A Utah banker who chairs the new super PAC explains that giving $10,000 or so to the opponent of an incumbent who sides with the people has no impact, "but if you say the bankers are going to put ... $1 million into your opponent's campaign, that starts to draw some attention." He calls this a "surgical" approach to carving out political power. Yeah — like doing surgery with a chainsaw and sledgehammer! . . .

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to commondreams.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 23, 2012 at 2:34 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "my mother will tell you I have never had a very good sense of proportion" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: If that is true (and I would probably dispute it), then it is her fault for making you as a young tyke look at your own poo before flushing it, and then later on allowing you to read the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky whilst listening to the music of Bob Marley!
    In fact, I have half of half (a quarter) of a mind to report her to "the authorities"!
    .................................................................................................
    RE: "everyone in the mainstream poohpoohs the power of the [pro-Israel] lobby" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: And frankly, they pretty much poohpooh the power of countless other lobbies that have Washington virtually hogtied, resulting in what political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls "inverted totalitarianism".
    ..................................................................................................

    RE: "And remember my post last week saying AIPAC president raised $1 million for Clinton candidacy in 92, and lo, Clinton supported the settlements." ~ Weiss

    FROM THE TRANSCRIPT OF A TELEPHONE CALL IN 1992 INVOLVING DAVID STEINER, AIPAC'S PRESIDENT AT THE TIME (POSTED ON M.J.
    ROSENBERG'S BLOG):
    

    (excerpt)...HAIM KATZ: "If Clinton is elected, has he told you who he’s going to put on the Supreme Court?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We’re talking now. We don’t have no commitments yet. We’re just negotiating. We’re more interested right now, in the secretary of state and the secretary of National Security Agency. That’s more important to us."
    HAIM KATZ: "If Clinton is elected, who do you think will be secretary of state?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We don’t know yet, we’re negotiating."
    HAIM KATZ: "Who are you hoping for?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I’ve got a list. But I really can’t go through it. I’m not allowed to talk about it."
    HAIM KATZ: "But you figure, God willing, if Clinton’s elected . . ."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We’ll have access."
    HAIM KATZ: "You’ll have access and you’ll have a good input into who’s secretary of state."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I do believe so."
    HAIM KATZ: "And the other position is. . ."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "National security adviser."
    HAIM KATZ: "Those are the two critical positions."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "Right."

    SOURCE - link to mjayrosenberg.com

• Passive-aggressive George Bush namechecks neocons for getting us into that mess
  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 4:07 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Here's Bush's sole reference to neocon Elliott Abrams, during the runup to the Iraq war in 2003: 'Two of our biggest concerns were starvation and refugees.... An estimated two million Iraqis could be displaced from their homes during war. On January 15, Elliott Abrams, a senior NSC staffer, delivered a detailed briefing on our preparations. We planned to prestation food, blankets, medicine, tents, etc.'
    Translation: Abrams told me everything was under control."~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: And Why, Oh Why (VIDEO, 03:35) did Bush have a senior NSC staffer who had been convicted of lying to Congress during Iran-Contra?

    FROM THE TRANSCRIPT OF A TELEPHONE CALL IN 1992 INVOLVING DAVID STEINER, AIPAC'S PRESIDENT AT THE TIME (POSTED ON M.J. ROSENBERG'S BLOG):
    

    (excerpt)...HAIM KATZ: "If Clinton is elected, has he told you who he’s going to put on the Supreme Court?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We’re talking now. We don’t have no commitments yet. We’re just negotiating. We’re more interested right now, in the secretary of state and the secretary of National Security Agency. That’s more important to us."
    HAIM KATZ: "If Clinton is elected, who do you think will be secretary of state?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We don’t know yet, we’re negotiating."
    HAIM KATZ: "Who are you hoping for?"
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I’ve got a list. But I really can’t go through it. I’m not allowed to talk about it."
    HAIM KATZ: "But you figure, God willing, if Clinton’s elected . . ."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "We’ll have access."
    HAIM KATZ: "You’ll have access and you’ll have a good input into who’s secretary of state."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I do believe so."
    HAIM KATZ: "And the other position is. . ."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "National security adviser."
    HAIM KATZ: "Those are the two critical positions."
    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "Right."

    SOURCE - link to mjayrosenberg.com

• 'Foreign Policy' peddles productive Iranian war theory
  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    RE: "Yagil Levy...writes...that Israel will only take the Palestinian issue seriously if it has a war with Iran. Note the crazy desperate logic of the second paragraph. Though Levy isn't for it, he is in tune with the 'national psychosis'." ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: "The Dissociative State of Israel™" is a mortal danger to both itself and to others. Consequently, it should be involuntarily committed for intensive psychiatric care!

    Dissociation (psychology) - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Google is partnering with Technion and Cornell in NY
  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    RE: "Marc Tracy at Tablet wonders whether Google also will become a BDS target because it's gone in with Israel's Technion for the new Cornell campus in New York." ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Generally I like Google, but I can get by without it just like I get by without Intel "blood processors" (by buying computers with AMD processors).

    SEE: Intel chip plant located on disputed Israeli land, by Henry Norr, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/08/02
    

    (excerpts) Just how diligent was Intel's due diligence when it chose to build a multibillion-dollar chip plant in Qiryat Gat, Israel? . . .
    . . . Intel calls the plant Fab 18 ("fab" being chip-industry jargon for a facility where the silicon wafers that are eventually turned into working chips are fabricated). The fab, which went into production in 1999, was the fruit of a $1 billion investment by the Santa Clara company, supplemented by a $600 million grant from the Israeli government. . .
    . . . But from a legal and historical point of view, Qiryat Gat happens to be an unusual location: It was not taken over by the Israeli military in 1948. Instead, it was part of a small enclave, known as the Faluja pocket, that the Egyptian army and local Palestinian forces had managed to hold through the end of the war.
    The area was surrounded by Israeli forces, however. When Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement in February 1949, the latter agreed to withdraw its soldiers, but it insisted that the agreement explicitly guarantee the safety and property of the 3,100 or so Arab civilians in the area.
    Israel accepted that demand. In an exchange of letters that were filed with the United Nations and became an annex to the main armistice agreement, the two countries agreed that “those of the civilian population who may wish to remain in Al-Faluja and Iraq al Manshiya (the two villages within the enclave covered by the letters) are to be permitted to do so. . . . All of these civilians shall be fully secure in their persons, abodes, property and personal effects.” . . .
    . . . Within days, the security the agreement had promised residents of the Al- Faluja pocket proved an illusion. Within weeks, the entire local population had fled to refugee camps outside of Israel.
    Morris presents ample evidence that the people of the Al-Faluja area left in response to a campaign of intimidation conducted by the Israeli military. He quotes, among other sources, reports filed by Ralph Bunche, the distinguished black American educator and diplomat who was serving as chief U. N. mediator in the region.
    Bunche’s reports include complaints from U.N. observers on the scene that “Arab civilians . . . at Al-Faluja have been beaten and robbed by Israeli soldiers,” that there were attempted rapes and that the Israelis were “firing promiscuously” on the Arab population. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to sfgate.com

• Biden meets major Israel lobby group at White House
  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 3:16 pm

    P.P.S. "AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!"

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Artur Davis]:
    

    . . . Davis ran again in 2002. During the campaign, Hilliard questioned whether Davis was "black enough" to represent the district. Despite these attempts to divide the African-American vote, Davis narrowly won the primary requiring a runoff in June. He won the runoff easily, assuring him victory in November in the heavily Democratic district, and he began his term in January 2003. . .
    . . . On February 6, 2009, Davis announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in 2010. His opponent in the Democratic primary was Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.[14]
    During the primary campaign, Davis downplayed matters of race and emphasized his independence from Democratic party orthodoxy. He caused controversy, including within his heavily minority congressional district, by voting against President Barack Obama's new health-care law—the only black Democrat in Congress to do so. He also refused to sit for the endorsement screenings of Alabama's black political groups, drawing criticism from some that he was an opportunist in search of white votes.[15] As a result, he became described as "the first African-American candidate in a statewide Alabama race to lose the black vote."[16] Birmingham News columnist John Archibald said “He ran his whole race as it if were a general election and he wanted to claim some conservative street cred. Alabama Democrats—blue dots in this big red state—have very little patience for that.” State Representative Roderick Scott said Black Democrats “can no longer take for granted they will receive the African-American vote.”[17] . . .
    On June 1, 2010, Davis lost the Democratic primary to Sparks, ending his gubernatorial bid. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from politics and would return to private practice at the conclusion of his 2009-2011 term.[18] Davis was succeeded in Congress by fellow Democrat Terri Sewell, the first African-American woman elected to the United House of Representatives from Alabama. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    P.P.P.S. Did Artur Davis get his "just deserts" ? ? ?

  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 3:00 pm with 1 replies

    P.S. ALSO SEE: A Congressional Election to Watch: The Middle East Conflict in Alabama's Seventh, by James Zogby, Arab American Institute, 5/27/02
    

    (excerpts) The lead sentence in a national Jewish newspaper said it all:
    “The Democratic primary in Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District, is being closely watched by Israel’s supporters, who view it as a chance to unseat an incumbent with ties to Arab countries and a spotty record of support for the Jewish state.” . . .
    . . . While Hilliard has sometimes voted for pro-Israel positions–for example, he did support a 1996 resolution to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem–in recent years, he has consistently supported a more balanced position.
    In December of 2001, he was only one of eleven members of Congress to vote against a congressional resolution “expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism.” Once again, on May 2, 2002, he was one of 21 members of Congress to vote against the notorious and one-sided pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian resolution that passed in the House of Representatives.
    All of this, of course, has encouraged some Jewish leaders to try to target Hilliard for defeat. In 2000 the Congressman was challenged by a young Birmingham lawyer, Artur Davis.
    On June 4th, 2002, voters in the Seventh Congressional District of Alabama’s Democratic primary elections will do more than determine the political future of Democratic congressman Earl Hilliard. They will also determine whether, once again, pro-Israeli groups around the U.S. will be able to claim that they defeated a supporter of Palestinian rights. . .
    . . . In a fundraising appeal to supporters of Israel, two of Davis’ Birmingham’s supporters, David Kahn and Jeffrey Snyder, wrote: “We have a very important opportunity in Alabama to help challenger Artur Davis (D) defeat an incumbent five term congressman, Earl Hilliard (D-AL-7) who has not been a friend of the U.S./Israel relationship…Hilliard has been extremely dangerous to not only our community but the U.S./Israel relationship. As Chairman of the Black Caucus he has lobbied members of the Black Caucus to oppose initiatives supporting Israel…"
    . . . Having so far reportedly raised $300,000 to purchase TV ads attacking Hilliard’s record, Davis stopped by the AIPAC convention a few weeks back to say:
    “I have received support from the Jewish community in Birmingham and the rest of the country, and I wanted to thank them personally.” . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to aaiusa.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 2:43 pm with 3 replies

    RE: "[Alabama Rep. Artur] Davis... received 76 percent of his 2002 contributions from outside Alabama and largely from New York City..." ~ M.J. Rosenberg

    SEE: "AIPAC's bid to defeat Hilliard is neo-McCarthyism", by Hassan A. El-Najjar, Al Jazeera Editorial, 6/01/02
    

    Congressman Earl Hilliard, a member of the US House of Representative, from the 7th district of Alabama, is under attack. The America-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) is after him, to defeat him in his district, and to make him a lesson to future dissidents. Being the first African American to represent Alabama in the US Congress and a civil rights figure could not shield him from the wrath of supporters of Israel. So, What did Hilliard do? He exercised his right not to sign the embarrassing House resolution that was a tantamount of pledging allegiance to Israel, at the time the Israeli occupation forces were committing war crimes against the Palestinian people. He was one of the 21 brave representatives who said no to AIPAC's tyranny, when the rest of the members of the US House of Representative signed the resolution on May 2, 2002. Not only that, in December 2001, Hilliard also dared to challenge the pro-Israel lobby when he was one of the eleven members of Congress who voted against a Congressional resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against Palestinian resistance that Israel calls "terrorism."
    Pro-Israel groups have decided to defeat him, so he does not come back to the House of Representatives. Through a national campaign, they raised substantial funds for his challenger, Artur Davis. By doing so, AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups are bringing back to the United States the notorious days of McCarthyism, with an additional component, that is zero tolerance to dissent, even in Congress. This is neo-McCarthyism big time. Americans should be alerted to the danger this incident represents for their freedoms, rights, and liberties. Alabama voters should know that unseating their representative would only serve Israel, not the 7th district of their state. More important, Americans should be alerted to the tactics used by pro-Israel groups in their nationwide efforts to pressure members of Congress to vote for resolutions that serve Israel, not the US interests.

    SOURCE - link to aljazeerah.info

• The Messiah's Donkey: Settlers fire on Palestinian villagers as the Israeli military watches
  • DICKERSON3870 May 21, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    RE: "Watch as the settlers first approach the village. Why can't they just stay home on the sabbath?" ~ Annie Robbins

    SEE: Fighting Settlers’ Impunity and Immunity, by Pierre Klochendler, Inter Press Service, 12/16/11
    

    (excerpts) . . . Often, settler stone-throwers confronting soldiers and Palestinians face arrest and interrogation before they’re sent home with a reprimand, or to a forced ‘exile’ in Israel proper; Palestinian stone-throwers confronting Israeli settlers or soldiers face possible death, or imprisonment.
    Since the army is not responsible for enforcing the law on Israeli citizens – the police is, together with the General Security Services (or "Shin Beth") – rioting by settlers has continued unabated. Netanyahu decided to give the army the power to arrest radical settlers.
    Moreover, Israel’s police in the West bank show signs of helplessness, even "negligence" and "incompetence". . .
    . . . The Israeli occupation, particularly the future of wildcat settlements built by settlers without formal government approval has been a simmering issue ever since their creation during the 1990s.
    In 2005, former head of the State Prosecution Criminal Department Talia Sasson published a landmark report on the question. Commissioned by then prime minister Ariel Sharon, the report found the Israeli government guilty of "institutional lawbreaking"* and of the theft of private Palestinian land to covertly establish over a hundred "illegal outposts".
    The damning irony is that the "outposts" were a 1997 initiative by none but Sharon himself, then foreign Minister under Netanyahu, who’d urged settlers to seize hilltops in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
    The report recommended criminal investigation against those allegedly involved in the scheme, but it was shelved. Repeated injunctions have since pressed successive governments to address the issue...

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to original.antiwar.com

    *P.S. RE: "...the report found the Israeli government guilty of 'institutional lawbreaking' ..."

    BRANDEIS ON 'BLOWBACK': Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis elaborated in Olmstead v. United States (1928):
    

    "In a government of law, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
    

• Feeling the hate in Long Island
  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    P.P.P.S. Since Woody Allen made a career partly out of making fun of New Jersey, it's only fair that I should be allowed to make fun of Long Island! My living in Georgia is no reason that I should be limited to making fun of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and possibly Arkansas.

  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 5:32 am

    P.P.S. A HILARIOUS FILM: Love and Death on Long Island trailer (VIDEO, 02:19) - link to youtube.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 22, 2012 at 5:09 am

    MORE DICKEY: "What's the Matter with Kansas Long Island?"

    P.S. Living in Georgia, I am very thankful for having places like Kansas and Long Island to make fun of!

  • DICKERSON3870 May 21, 2012 at 1:58 am

    P.P.S. LONG ISLAND IN BETTER DAYS:
    Grey Gardens, 1975, PG, 94 minutes
    Documentary pioneers the Maysles brothers (Gimme Shelter) capture poignant moments in the lives of Jackie O's quirky relatives -- Edith Bouvier Beale, aka Big Edie, and her middle-aged daughter, Little Edie -- at their decaying estate, Grey Gardens. The ladies shut out their bleak present by recalling richer times and lost loves, and while Little Edie confides that she'd like to leave, the camera captures an enduring co-dependency.
    Netflix availability: DVD
    Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
    IMdB - link to imdb.com
    Wikipedia - link to en.wikipedia.org
    • ON You Tube: Grey Gardens (VIDEO, 1:35:03) - link to youtube.com

    P.S. I don't mean to pick a favorite, but Big Edie was definitely "the cat's meow"! Quite the bawdy senior citizen.

  • DICKERSON3870 May 21, 2012 at 1:23 am with 5 replies

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Peter T. King]:
    

    [excerpt] Peter T. King (born April 5, 1944) is the U.S. Representative for New York's 3rd congressional district, serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party, known for his active support for the Irish republican movement. King's central Long Island district includes parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties.
    King serves as the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and drew attention in early 2011 for holding hearings on the extent of radicalization of Muslim Americans. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    P.S. Did I mention that Long Island is shaped like a phallus?

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 1:44 pm with 3 replies

    "The hater in the sky", by Eli Valley, +972 Blog, May 14, 2012
    LINK - link to 972mag.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    P.S. RE: "In 'The Hill', Rebecca Vilkomerson says the me-too-ism of the two candidates on Israel shows the poverty of our political discourse: At least Turner’s positions on Israel are consistent with his Tea Party politics. David Weprin, the Democratic hopeful, is generally liberal – except that his positions on Israel are virtually indistinguishable from Turner’s. . ."

    MY COMMENT: So at least in regards to positions on Israel, George Wallace was incredibly prescient when he said in 1968: "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrat and Republican parties."

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 1:03 pm with 3 replies

    RE: "Apparently American Jews might choose the US president because of his stance on issues of foreign policy." ~ OlegR

    REPLY: Yes, the more rabid Likudniks in the U.S. are going to vote overwhelmingly for Romney, and then many of them will continue voting for the GOP in future elections. Right-wing Jews and Christian fundamentalists will make up the core of the Republican party for quite some time to come.
    "Some people" might say 'good riddance'!

    SEE: Brooklyn cong’l slugfest is no-holds-barred (except for one issue of course), by Philip Weiss, 9/12/11
    

    (excerpt) Tomorrow's primary for the Anthony Weiner seat is being watched as an Obama-referendum, in what was supposed to be a safe Democratic district. Report says that Andrew Cuomo and Bill Clinton calls for Democrat David Weprin say nothing about Israel, but Republican Bob Turner is pushing the issue. Trashing Turkey, apparently for the Gaza flotilla raid.
    

    The world is becoming a more dangerous place because of Mr. Obama’s demonstrated ambivalence toward Israel and his naïve and academic belief in moral relativity.

    In "The Hill", Rebecca Vilkomerson says the me-too-ism of the two candidates on Israel shows the poverty of our political discourse:
    

    At least Turner's positions on Israel are consistent with his Tea Party politics. David Weprin, the Democratic hopeful, is generally liberal – except that his positions on Israel are virtually indistinguishable from Turner's. . .

    SOURCE - link to mondoweiss.net

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 12:39 pm with 7 replies

    RE: "Feeling the hate in Long Island" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Forget it Jake Phil. It's Chinatown Long Island.

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Pamela Geller]:
    

    (excerpt)Pamela Geller (born June 14, 1958)[5] is an American blogger, author, political activist, and commentator.[1] She is known primarily for her criticisms of Islam and opposition to Muslim activities and causes, such as the proposed construction of an Islamic community center near the former site of the World Trade Center. She has described her blogging and campaigns in the United States as being against what she terms "creeping Sharia" in the country. Geller and Robert Spencer co-founded the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America,[6] an organization which is labeled as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League[7] and the Southern Poverty Law Center.[8][9] Geller and Spencer also co-authored the book "The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America".[3]

    Geller, born to Jewish parents Reuben ("Ruby") and Lillian Geller, is the third of four sisters.[1][10][11] Growing up in Hewlett Harbor, Long Island, New York, she assisted in her father's business. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

  • Page: 38
• 'King Bibi' is ready for his close up, and 'Time' is willing to oblige
  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    I have always thought Netanyahu looks and acts a lot like Mussolini.
    • MUSSOLINI SPEECH TARANTO (VIDEO, 03:28) - link to youtube.com

    ALSO SEE: "Bibi and the Yo-Yos", by Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, 05/26/11:

    (excerpt) It was all rather disgusting.
    There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the world’s only superpower, flying up and down like so many yo-yos, applauding wildly, every few minutes or seconds, the most outrageous lies and distortions of Binyamin Netanyahu.
    It was worse than the Syrian parliament during a speech by Bashar Assad, where anyone not applauding could find himself in prison. Or Stalin’s Supreme Soviet, when showing less than sufficient respect could have meant death.
    What the American Senators and Congressmen feared was a fate worse than death. Anyone remaining seated or not applauding wildly enough could have been caught on camera – and that amounts to political suicide. It was enough for one single congressman to rise and applaud, and all the others had to follow suit. Who would dare not to?
    The sight of these hundreds of parliamentarians jumping up and clapping their hands, again and again and again and again, with the Leader graciously acknowledging with a movement of his hand, was reminiscent of other regimes. Only this time it was not the local dictator who compelled this adulation, but a foreign one.
    The most depressing part of it was that there was not a single lawmaker – Republican or Democrat – who dared to resist. When I was a 9 year old boy in Germany, I dared to leave my right arm hanging by my side when all my schoolmates raised theirs in the Nazi salute and sang Hitler’s anthem. Is there no one in Washington DC who has that simple courage? . . .

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to original.antiwar.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    RE: "‘King Bibi’ is ready for his close up"

    A MID-SPRING AFTERNOON'S VIDEO INTERLUDE, brought to you courtesy of the good folks who make new Ziocaine Über-Xtreme®: It’s guaran-damn-teed to knock you effing senseless!™
    

    Joe Gillis: "You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big."
    Norma Desmond: "I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small."
    ~ ~ ~ ~
    Joe Gillis [narrating]:"So they were turning after all, those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her."
    Norma Desmond: [to newsreel camera] "And I promise you I'll never desert you again because after 'Salome' we'll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

    "Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready for My Close-Up"- Sunset Blvd. Movie CLIP (1950) HD [VIDEO, 02:43] - link to youtube.com

    P.S. SPECIAL MUSICAL BONUS: We Insist, by Zoe Keating on One Cello x 16: Natoma (2005) [VIDEO, 03:47] - link to youtube.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 2:12 pm

    RE: “Netanyahu, a man who keeps a picture of Winston Churchill on a shelf behind his desk, is now eyeing his role as ‘a defining figure in Israeli history and a significant player on the world stage’.” ~ Higgins

    DID CHURCHILL OFFER MUSSOLINI PART OF FRANCE AND THE FRENCH COLONIES? *
    A DOCUMENTARY - Mussolini: The Churchill Conspiracies, 2007, NR, 96 minutes
    Examining a much-contested conspiracy theory, this intriguing documentary investigates accusations that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was assassinated by British secret agents on orders from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Though proof has never been found, theorists believe Churchill wanted to cover up the existence of secret and damaging letters from the prime minister to the dictator regarding Italy's position in World War II.
    Netflix Availability: Streaming and DVD
    NETFLIX LISTING - link to movies.netflix.com

    * SEE: Churchill 'Ordered Killing Of Mussolini', By Peter Popham in Rome, The Independent (UK), 8/29/04
    LINK - link to rense.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    RE: “Netanyahu, a man who keeps a picture of Winston Churchill on a shelf behind his desk, is now eyeing his role as ‘a defining figure in Israeli history and a significant player on the world stage’.” ~ Higgins

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Iran]:
    

    (excerpt). . . In 1951, after the assassination of prime minister Ali Razmara, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected prime minister by a parliamentary vote which was then ratified by the Shah. As prime minister, Mosaddegh became enormously popular in Iran after he nationalized Iran's petroleum industry and oil reserves. In response, the British government, headed by Winston Churchill, embargoed Iranian oil and successfully enlisted the United States to join in a plot to depose the democratically elected government of Mosaddegh. In 1953 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax. The operation was successful, and Mosaddegh was arrested on 19 August 1953. The coup was the first time the US had openly overthrown an elected, civilian government.[112]
    After Operation Ajax, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rule became increasingly autocratic. With American support, the Shah was able to rapidly modernize Iranian infrastructure, but he simultaneously crushed all forms of political opposition with his intelligence agency, SAVAK. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    P.S. FROM "What Really Caused World War 1?":
    

    (excerpt)...On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was sunk off the coast of County Cork, Ireland by a U-boat after it had slowed to await the arrival of the English escort vessel, the Juno, which was intended to escort it into the English port. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, issued orders that the Juno was to return to port, and the Lusitania sat alone in the channel. Because Churchill knew of the presence of three U-boats in the vicinity, it is reasonable to presume that he had planned for the Lusitania to be sunk, and it was...

    SOURCE - link to threeworldwars.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 20, 2012 at 1:52 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Netanyahu, a man who keeps a picture of Winston Churchill on a shelf behind his desk, is now eyeing his role as 'a defining figure in Israeli history and a significant player on the world stage'." ~ Higgins

    FROM "Inaction as Action: How Churchill Sank the Lusitania" -
    

    (excerpt) . . . Christopher Hitchens, who wrote a brilliant book on the history of Anglo-American relations entitled "Blood, Class, and Nostalgia" talks about is the sinking of the Lusitania, which he solidly proves is the responsibility of the British head of naval intelligence, Sir Winston Churchill.
    Churchill played a strong part in both the sinking of the ship and the controversy that ensued later. That there was such a large cache of arms on the ship (over 1,248 cases of shells) that it sunk after being hit by only one torpedo was not a surprise, nor was it uncommon; there was a sizable number of American citizens who supported the British war effort, supplying arms on almost every cruise ship between the nations. What was a surprise was the lack of protection given to the warship. Churchill had been warned that there were German submarines in the area (which had, in fact, already sunk several other British ships), and failed either to warn the ship or send any escort ships into the area.
    Tempting as it is to simply attribute this to negligence on Churchill's part (warning the ships was solidly his responsibility), the odds of Churchill failing to do his duty were astronomically low. It would have taken a period of over ten days of negligence, according to Hitchens, for the sinking to occur. Churchill, one of the most efficient people in British government, could not reasonably have been so negligent; he could, however, have suppressed the information without effort. Had he wanted intelligence suppressed, the King himself could not have found anything out.
    Churchill didn't stop there, however. After letting the ship (and most of the civilians on board) go down, he started an insidious publicity campaign and ran the investigation that "discovered" that there had been more than one torpedo, and he was responsible for the spread of a rumor that the Germans had created a Lusitania medal honoring soldiers who killed civilians. These propaganda moves helped shift public opinion in the United States to the British side...

    SOURCE - link to english.emory.edu

• WaPo's Walter Pincus says US is 'going above and beyond for Israel'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 18, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    RE: "WaPo’s Walter Pincus says US is ‘going above and beyond for Israel’"

    ALSO SEE: US Charity Secretly Funds Israeli Nukes, by Grant Smith, Antiwar.com, 5/18/12
    

    (excerpt) Newly declassified FBI files are shining an inconvenient light on Israel’s nuclear weaponization research program and how it has been secretly funded from the United States. . .
    . . . what the FBI uncovered in the 1990′s about the Weizmann Institute clearly documents that it was both involved in nuclear weapons development and fundraising through a US non-profit charity. That pile of evidence has only deepened in intervening years. . .
    . . .In 1987 the Department of Defense contracted a study titled "Critical Technology Issues in Israel" led by Dr. Edwin S. Townsley, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Division of the Institute for Defense Analyses. According to leaks to the press, the IDA study documented Weizmann scientists developed a cutting-edge high-energy physics and hydrodynamics program "needed for nuclear bomb design." Weizmann also worked on advanced methods for enriching uranium to weapons-grade through the use of lasers. As US foreign aid for Israeli conventional weapons purchases and development surged, so too did Weizmann’s US charitable funding for secret weapons development.
    The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute added $50 million in US tax-deductible charitable contributions to its half billion in net assets according to its latest public tax filing. In 2009 it dispatched $43 million for "program services" in the "Middle East and North Africa" at the Weizmann Institute. AIPAC, which features Weizmann programs at its annual policy events and is intertwined through chairman emeritus Robert Asher’s ties to both organizations, would no doubt muster the full might of its 50-plus executive committee organizations to derail any attempt at overdue regulation of Weizmann during the current showdown with Iran. . .
    . . . By knowingly turning a blind eye on Weizmann’s assistance to Israel’s clandestine nuclear program and refusing to hold Israel and its US collaborators responsible for NUMEC diversions, the US has violated Article 1 of the NPT. It states, "Each nuclear-weapons state undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to assist any non-nuclear-weapon state to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices." It is clear that the Justice Department did not follow the Weizmann investigation through to its logical conclusion, even after discovering the US weapons-funding front. The key conclusion of a recently declassified General Accounting Office report is that the US government similarly failed to properly investigate the NUMEC uranium diversions. Taxpayers, who must pay extra revenue to the US Treasury because of the Weizmann Institute’s unjustifiable tax deductible status, have long been made involuntary accomplices in Middle East nuclear proliferation. Given these tragic US failures to uphold rule of law, it is now time for the International Atomic Energy Agency to take notice of the true violators of the NPT. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to original.antiwar.com

• U. of Haifa stops Nakba commemoration, as prof writes hate post calling for 'Many Nakbas'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 18, 2012 at 12:56 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "The following are some of the Professor’s [Steven Plaut's] startlingly racist recommendations for Nabka greeting cards: -One, two, three, MANY Nabkbas! -A little Nakba never hurt anyone! " ~ Ira Glunts

    MY COMMENT: This is an excellent example of how über-nationalism can make even an economics professor with a doctorate from Princeton act like a juvenile delinquent.

    FROM GEORGE ORWELL, "Notes on Nationalism" (1945):
    

    [EXCERPTS] . . . By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’.[1] But secondly—and this is much more important—I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognising no other duty than that of advancing its interests. . .
    . . . Nationalism, in the extended sense in which I am using the word, includes such movements and tendencies as Communism, political Catholicism, Zionism, Antisemitism, Trotskyism and Pacifism. It does not necessarily mean loyalty to a government or a country, still less to one’s own country, and it is not even strictly necessary that the units in which it deals should actually exist. To name a few obvious examples, Jewry, Islam, Christendom, the Proletariat and the White Race are all of them objects of passionate nationalistic feeling: but their existence can be seriously questioned, and there is no definition of any one of them that would be universally accepted. . .
    . . .it is important not to confuse nationalism with mere worship of success. The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him. Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also—since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself—unshakeably certain of being in the right. . .
    . . .All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. . . 
    . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. . .

    • SOURCE: "Notes on Nationalism", by George Orwell - link to literaturecollection.com

• House Dems slam NYPD spy program as throwback to 'dark chapters' in US history
  • DICKERSON3870 May 17, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    RE: "Peter King (R-NY), who led the Congressional hearings on 'Muslim radicalization' last year, took to the House floor to say, 'We should be here tonight giving the NYPD a medal...If you’re looking for an Islamic terrorist, you don’t go to Ben’s Kosher Deli. When they were looking for the Italian mob, they didn’t go to an Irish bar.' " ~ Alex Kane

    MY COMMENT: Speaking of "an Irish bar" and "the Italian mob", Peter King reminds me so very much of Alfonse Marcello "Al" D'Amato!

    FROM THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE 1992 AIPAC TELEPHONE CALL POSTED ON M.J. ROSENBERG'S SITE:
    

    (excerpt)...HAIM KATZ: "Now D’Amato, has he been good for Israel?"

    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "You couldn’t have a better . . . listen I think Abrams would be good too, but that’s not the message."

    HAIM KATZ: "Yeah."

    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "Ah…"

    HAIM KATZ: "So the message, so the message is that ah…I agree with you all the way, that if somebody’s been good for Israel, I’ll take D’Amato. But you have no complaints with D’Amato?"

    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "I have no complaints with D’Amato."

    HAIM KATZ: "Uh huh, so and ah, you know, let me tell you, Abrams might be, might be too liberal. I don’t know if Abrams supported, let’s say the ah, the war against Iraq."

    DAVID STEINER AIPAC: "Yeah, I don’t know, and ah, I don’t know. But all I know is if I have a guy who is there and he’s doing it, then I don’t want to change, you know?" ...

    SOURCE - link to mjayrosenberg.com

• Walzer says Jews were on the left because the left supported Jews
  • DICKERSON3870 May 19, 2012 at 2:56 am with 3 replies

    RE: "As Michael Walzer said (see my post above) Judaism is both a religion and a nationalism..." ~ Klaus Bloemker

    MY COMMENT: Personally, I call that Revisionist Judaism - Judaism that has been co-opted by Zionism. I also call the Christian nationalism in this country Revisionist Christianity.
    But who cares?

  • DICKERSON3870 May 17, 2012 at 4:26 pm with 13 replies

    RE: "There is clearly an altruistic tradition in Judaism, eloquently stated by Rabbi Hillel, If I am not for others, who am I?" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Yes, but Judaism is a religion (at least it once was), whereas Zionism is nationalism! "Therein lies the rub."

    FROM GEORGE ORWELL, "Notes on Nationalism" (1945):
    

    [EXCERPTS] ". . .All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. . . 
    . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. . ."

    • SOURCE: "Notes on Nationalism", by George Orwell - link to literaturecollection.com

• A London interruption
  • DICKERSON3870 May 16, 2012 at 11:21 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "he was looking for a fight and had already started to shake with rage." ~ Eleanor Kilroy

    MY COMMENT: Oh, the cognitive dissonance! It reminds me of an article several years ago dealing with a debate or speech at a university in the U.K. (Oxford, I believe) in which Alan Dershowitz was described as "jumping up and down" (which I interpreted as 'hopping mad').

    Flying off the handle and I'm hopping mad - link to boards.straightdope.com

    P.S. Video: Pro-Israel Activist Knocks Camera Out of Hands of Alison Weir (VIDEO, 02:37) - link to youtube.com

• Green Party candidate for President calls for end to Israeli apartheid
  • DICKERSON3870 May 19, 2012 at 2:12 am

    RE: "Should we say 'thank you'?" ~ sardelapasti

    MY COMMENT: You will not need to, because I'm certain the polls leading up to the election will show that Obama does not have a realistic chance of winning Georgia. Hence, I will be voting for Jill Stein.
    Oddly, this is one advantage I have by "virtue" of living in a Republican state like Georgia rather than a swing state like Florida!

  • DICKERSON3870 May 16, 2012 at 12:48 pm with 4 replies

    I expect to vote for Jill Stein and the Green Party in November. The only thing that might change this is if on election day my state (Georgia) appears to be up for grabs and the election at the national level is close. My assumption at this point is that Obama will not have a realistic chance of garnering Georgia's electoral votes, thus leaving me free to vote for Stein.

• Oren's defensive piece on 'sinister' delegitimization movement shows boycott is working
  • DICKERSON3870 May 16, 2012 at 2:17 am

    P.S. ALSO RE: "Why is Israel's record on gay rights dismissed as camouflage for discrimination against others?" ~ Michael Oren

    FROM RICHARD SILVERSTEIN, 5/15/12:
    

    (excerpt)...The reason I find it completely credible that the FBI put him on the list in order to recruit him as an informant is that this is precisely how the [Israeli] Shin Bet recruits its Palestinian stoolies. It targets Palestinians with life-threatening illnesses, then allows them to enter Israel for medical treatment. But before it completes the permit process it demands that they become spies in order to receive treatment in Israel. Another method is to target Palestinian gays and threaten them with exposure if they don’t become collaborators with the Occupation. It stinks to high heaven, which makes it an entirely appropriate tactic for the Shin Bet, which specializes in such behavior. . .

    SOURCE - link to richardsilverstein.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 15, 2012 at 5:15 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Why is Israel's record on gay rights dismissed as camouflage for discrimination against others?" ~ Michael Oren

    SEE: Israel's Treatment of Gay Palestinian Asylum Seekers ~ by Caroline Esser, The Washington Note, 6/06/11
    

    (excerpts)...The newest way to sell Israel to Americans: LGBT rights. Search gay rights on the Anti-Defamation League's website and what do you find? A ready-to-print and available for order poster that reads, "Which of the Middle East nations protects the legal rights, safety & freedom of the LGBT communities? Only Israel." . . .
    . . . In their 2008 study, "Nowhere to Run: Gay Palestinian Asylum-Seekers in Israel," Michael Kagan and Anat Ben-Dor describe in detail Israel's unsympathetic and unbending policy towards gay Palestinians. . .
    ...In pursuit of protection and the ability to openly express their sexuality, there have been at least ten cases in which gay Palestinians have sought refuge in Israel. However, despite their desperation, Israel refuses to even review gay Palestinian applications for asylum (those who have successfully received asylum have had to submit their cases directly to the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva). Moreover, gay Palestinians who have illegally entered Israel have been arrested and promptly deported--returned to the very environments in which their lives were at risk and in which they will now face further danger as they are questioned not only for their sexuality but for their choice to spend time in Israel...

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to thewashingtonnote.com

• 'The Nakba is BS': Right-wing Israelis protest student-run Nakba commemoration at Tel Aviv U
  • DICKERSON3870 May 15, 2012 at 4:39 pm

    RE: "Others held entire pamphlets calling Nakba a lie, toting copies of rightist group Im Tirzu's Nakba Harta, or 'Nakba Bullshit.' The booklet, published last year, is a 'land without a people, people without a land' polemical account of early Zionism." ~ Allison Deger

    FROM GEORGE ORWELL:
    

    "All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about
    them." ~ George Orwell, in his 1945 "Notes on Nationalism"

    SOURCE - link to literaturecollection.com

• The left lacks an analysis of the neocon rise
  • DICKERSON3870 May 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Americans don't want to be stuck in these [Middle Eastern] wars, Berman shows, citing polls. But why do the neocons have power? Berman draws a blank. It's because of a vacuum in the Republican establishment." ~ Weiss

    ALSO SEE: Why is there so little accountability in foreign policymaking? ~ by Stephen M. Walt, foreignpolicy.com, 5/15/12
    

    (excerpt)...as U.S. neoconservatives have long demonstrated, the best defense is sometimes a good offense. No influential political faction in America is more willing to engage in character assassination and combative politics than they are, in sharp contrast to most liberals and even most realists. I'm not talking about spirited debate over the issues -- which is a key part of effective democratic politics -- I'm talking about the tendency to accuse those with whom they disagree of being unpatriotic, morally bankrupt, anti-semitic, or whatever. Their willingness to play hardball intimidates a lot of people, which in turn protects them from a full accounting for their past actions. . .

    Entire commentary - link to walt.foreignpolicy.com

• Israel still holds 1000s of political prisoners, including 27 Palestinian members of Parliament
  • DICKERSON3870 May 15, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    RE: "Shmuel what do you think of an American prison system? In comparison." ~ OlegR

    QUESTION: When you ask "what do you think of an American prison system?", are you referring to the "American prison system" here in the US, or are you referring to the "American prison system" in countries we have occupied? Do you see them as being the same?

• AIPAC's Iran resolution (What if Congress had told JFK he couldn't 'rely on containment' with Soviets?)
  • DICKERSON3870 May 15, 2012 at 3:19 pm

    P.P.S. ALSO SEE: Why is there so little accountability in foreign policymaking? ~ by Stephen M. Walt, foreignpolicy.com, 5/15/12
    

    (excerpt)...as U.S. neoconservatives have long demonstrated, the best defense is sometimes a good offense. No influential political faction in America is more willing to engage in character assassination and combative politics than they are, in sharp contrast to most liberals and even most realists. I'm not talking about spirited debate over the issues -- which is a key part of effective democratic politics -- I'm talking about the tendency to accuse those with whom they disagree of being unpatriotic, morally bankrupt, anti-semitic, or whatever. Their willingness to play hardball intimidates a lot of people, which in turn protects them from a full accounting for their past actions. . .

    Entire commentary - link to walt.foreignpolicy.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 4:45 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "The resolution, which almost surely will pass on Tuesday, is telling the president that he may not 'rely on containment” in response to “the Iranian nuclear threat.'...[T]he “no containment” idea is absurd and reckless." ~ M.J. Rosenberg

    MY COMMENT: It smells an awful lot like "Team B". Quite malodorous!

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Team B]:
    

    (excerpts) Team B was a competitive analysis exercise commissioned by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1970s to analyze threats the Soviet Union posed to the security of the United States. . .
    . . . The Team B reports became the intellectual foundation for the idea of "the window of vulnerability" and of the massive arms buildup that began toward the end of the Carter administration and accelerated under President Ronald Reagan.[4]
    Some scholars and policy-makers, such as Anne Cahn of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, later criticized the Team B project's findings.[5][6] . . .
    . . . According to Fred Kaplan, "In retrospect, the Team B report (which has since been declassified) turns out to have been wrong on nearly every point.[27]. . .
    . . . Team B came to the conclusion in their report[28] that the Soviets had or could develop an entirely new anti-submarine detection system that used a system that did not depend on sound and was, thus, undetectable by contemporary Western technology, even though no evidence existed for it or its deployment, other than money spent on research, and when the Western experts believed that such a system would be impossible. When the CIA argued that the economic chaos in the Soviet Union was hindering their ability to produce an air defense system, Team B countered by arguing that the Soviet Union was trying to deceive the American public and claimed that the Russian air defense system worked perfectly. Some members were even considering promoting a first strike policy against the U.S.S.R.[8][11][29]
    Team B also concluded that the Soviet Union did not adhere to the doctrine of mutual assured destruction, but rather believed it could win a nuclear war outright. [Richard] Pipes -- in his "Commentary" article -- argued that CIA suffered from "mirror-imaging" (i.e., from assuming that the other side had to-and did-think and evaluate exactly the same way). . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    P.S. "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us." ~ Neocon Creed (This creed also works for Team B, Republicans, Fox News, Fundies, etc.)

• 'Orgy in the desert' fails to wed young Jewish woman to Zionism
  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    RE: "Rose Surnow has a funny piece up about Birthright, called 'I gave a handjob at Jew Camp'."

    MY COMMENT: Very "stimulating" indeed, but what about some stories for the lesbian, bisexual, gay, transsexual, etc. members of the GMC (Greater Mondoweiss Community)?

    DIRECTED BY HAROLD PINTER, "IN POINT OF FACT"!
    Butley, 1974, R, 124 minutes
    This witty adaptation of Simon Gray's play tracks a day in the life of Ben Butley, an embittered English professor who learns that his homosexual lover is leaving him for another man and that his ex-wife is about to marry someone he hates.
    Cast: Alan Bates, Jessica Tandy, Richard O'Callaghan, Susan Engel, Michael Byrne, Georgina Hale, Simon Rouse, John Savident
    Director: Harold Pinter
    Netflix availability: Streaming and DVD
    • Netfix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
    • IMdB listing - link to imdb.com
    • Butley [excerpt] (VIDEO, 02:24) - link to youtube.com
    • Butley [Susan Engel excerpt] (VIDEO, 09:44) - link to youtube.com

    P.S. FROM WIKIPEDIA [Butley (play)]: In his introduction to the play, Harold Pinter wrote:
    Simon Gray asked me to direct Butley in 1970. I found its savage, lacerating wit hard to beat and accepted the invitation... The extraordinary thing about Butley, it still seems to me, is that the play gives us a character who hurls himself towards the destruction while living, in the fever of his intellectual hell, with a vitality and brilliance known to few of us. He courts death by remaining ruthlessly – even dementedly – alive. It's a remarkable creation and Alan Bates as Butley gave the performance of a lifetime.[1]

    P.P.S. Quite the slugfest, "metaphorically speaking"!

• I Want My NPT: A weekend review of Iran nuclear program propaganda
  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    RE: "[George] Jahn, unsurprisingly, has a long history of silly reporting on the Iran nuclear issue." ~ Nima Shirazi

    ALSO SEE: How Mossad Justified Its Murder of an Innocent Iranian Electrical Engineer, by Gareth Porter, TruthOut.org, 3/17/12
    

    (excerpts)...The possibility that Mossad killed the wrong Iranian scientist cannot be completely ruled out. But almost immediately after his murder, Israel sought to justify the murder of Rezaeinejad by presenting him as working on the covert nuclear weapons program Israel had been claiming for years. Associated Press correspondent in Vienna George Jahn reported on July 28 that an anonymous official of an anonymous "member state" of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told him Rezaeinejad had been participating in "developing high voltage switches," which he described as "a key component in setting off the explosives needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.". . .
    ...Two months later, on September 19, Jahn and his anonymous source from the unnamed member state were back at it again, this time with a purported "intelligence summary" claiming to identify the researcher who had allegedly collaborated with Rezaeinejad...
    ...Finally, the intelligence summary claimed that Rezaeinejad was not an electrical engineer at all, but a "physicist" who had worked for the Iranian defense ministry on not only high-voltage switches, but also on other projects linked to nuclear weapons development - which it did not identify.
    But an investigation into the Rezaeinejad case reveals that Israel had used the AP's Jahn to carry out a deliberate disinformation campaign about the victim to justify his murder. Rezaeinejad left a record of published research which makes it very clear that he was indeed an electrical engineer, rather than a physicist, and that he had been working on basic electrical power engineering technologies...

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to truth-out.org

• The neocon machine
  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 3:18 pm

    P.P.P.S. "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us." ~ Neocon Creed (This creed also works for Team B, Republicans, Fox News, Fundies, etc.)

  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 3:16 pm with 1 replies

    P.P.S. ALSO AS TO “The neocon propaganda organs are very much in place.”,
    SEE: The Right’s False Prophet, By Kenneth B. McIntyre, The American Conservative, 5/10/12
    

    (excerpts) . . . In 'Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America' Paul Gottfried, the Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College, offers an explanation of the Straussian phenomenon that is concise and compelling. . .
    . . . The second direction from which Gottfried approaches Strauss leads through an examination of the Straussian method and its products. Gottfried provides a critical account of the method and also notes the ahistorical, quasi-legendary, and often hagiographic character of the interpretations that the method produces. The Straussian method consists of two distinct doctrines, neither of which is particularly clear or convincing. First, Strauss asserts that understanding the work of a philosopher involves the reproduction of the author’s intention. Unfortunately, and as Gottfried argues, Strauss never explains what he means by “intention,” nor does he explain how one might reproduce an author’s intention. The second doctrine, however, renders the first irrelevant. Strauss argues that authentic philosophers hide their teaching from the casual reader and only initiates into the true philosophic art can decode the esoteric meaning of such texts. For Strauss and the Straussians, this is not an historical claim but a theoretical one, and it yields an interpretative strategy both naïve and paranoid.
    The results of the Straussian method read like they were written by the intellectual offspring of Madame Blavatsky and Edgar Bergen. It may seem difficult to distinguish between the oracular pronouncements and the intellectual ventriloquism, but that’s because there is no real distinction to be made. As Gottfried notes, there is uncanny similarity between the Straussian reading of texts and the postmodern deconstruction of language. The esoteric claims provide cover for Straussian interpretive preferences and shield against criticism from anyone outside the clique. . .

    ENTIRE BOOK REVIEW - link to theamericanconservative.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 3:12 pm with 1 replies

    P.S. ALSO AS TO “we know better what they’re thinking than they do”,
    SEE THIS FROM WIKIPEDIA [Team B]:
    

    (excerpts) Team B was a competitive analysis exercise commissioned by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1970s to analyze threats the Soviet Union posed to the security of the United States. . .
    . . . The Team B reports became the intellectual foundation for the idea of "the window of vulnerability" and of the massive arms buildup that began toward the end of the Carter administration and accelerated under President Ronald Reagan.[4]
    Some scholars and policy-makers, such as Anne Cahn of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, later criticized the Team B project's findings.[5][6] . . .
    . . . According to Fred Kaplan, "In retrospect, the Team B report (which has since been declassified) turns out to have been wrong on nearly every point.[27]. . .
    . . . Team B came to the conclusion in their report[28] that the Soviets had or could develop an entirely new anti-submarine detection system that used a system that did not depend on sound and was, thus, undetectable by contemporary Western technology, even though no evidence existed for it or its deployment, other than money spent on research, and when the Western experts believed that such a system would be impossible. When the CIA argued that the economic chaos in the Soviet Union was hindering their ability to produce an air defense system, Team B countered by arguing that the Soviet Union was trying to deceive the American public and claimed that the Russian air defense system worked perfectly. Some members were even considering promoting a first strike policy against the U.S.S.R.[8][11][29]
    Team B also concluded that the Soviet Union did not adhere to the doctrine of mutual assured destruction, but rather believed it could win a nuclear war outright. Pipes -- in his "Commentary" article -- argued that CIA suffered from "mirror-imaging" (i.e., from assuming that the other side had to-and did-think and evaluate exactly the same way). . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 3:09 pm with 4 replies

    RE: "Washington is setting up the same path all over again. As if nothing has been learned. The neocon propaganda organs are very much in place. The war talk is similar, especially the depiction of Iran’s leaders as irrational zealots, impervious to reason." ~ Scott McConnell reporting on Steve Walt's talk

    AS TO "The neocon propaganda organs are very much in place.",
    SEE: Rush From Reality, By Rick Perlstein, 02/26/09
    

    (excerpts) I’ve been listening to Rush Limbaugh for going on twenty years now. . .
    . . . And so, yesterday, I visited the funhouse again, to see what the hall of mirrors looked like after President Obama’s triumphant State of the Union address (68% of viewers had a very positive reaction...)—the day after, in other words, conservatism was ground into the dust once again.
    Rush came out of the gate blaring, declaiming the irrelevance of such poll. . .
    . . . He went on, of course. And on, and on, and on, and on. Came the first caller, who made the mistake of pointing to Obama’s actual language in the speech, and got interrupted by El Rushbo— “Pay no attention to what he says. He means the opposite in most cases. What he says is irrelevant.”
    . . . I knew I’d heard this before. This was the doctrine of the “principle of reversal” enunciated by John Birch Society founder Robert Welch. Welch explained that in order to understand what the Communists are saying, you have to translate it into its opposite. Though it was a principle, of course, that Welch frequently honored in the breach. When a Communist said something he thought was embarrassing, Welch hammered home that the Communist meant exactly what he said.
    The sole authority, of course, qualified to decide when a Communist meant the opposite of what he said, and when he meant exactly what he said was Robert Welch. . .

    SOURCE – link to ourfuture.org

• On the sidewalk in Hamburg-- 'Hier wohnte'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 14, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    RE: "What a wrenching memorial. Writes a friend visiting Hamburg, 'The house immediately next door to my hotel--now a kindergarten--had these brass 4" by 4" plaques embedded in the sidewalk--as a number of houses do in Hamburg.'" ~ Weiss

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Theresienstadt concentration camp]:
    

    (excerpts) Theresienstadt concentration camp, also referred to as Theresienstadt Ghetto[1], was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín (German name Theresienstadt), located in what is now the Czech Republic. During World War II it served as a Nazi concentration camp staffed in equal numbers by German Nazi guards and their ethnic Czech collaborators. Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered there and over 150,000 others (including tens of thousands of children) were held there for months or years, before then being sent to their deaths on rail transports to Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps in Poland, as well as to smaller camps elsewhere. . .
    . . . On June 23, 1944, the Nazis permitted a visit by representatives from the Danish Red Cross and the International Red Cross in order to dispel rumors about the extermination camps. . .
    . . . To minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt, the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz. Also deported in these actions were most of the Czechoslovakian workers assigned to 'Operation Embellishment.' They also erected fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort.
    The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than three in a room. . .
    . . . Apparently the Red Cross representatives were easily fooled by the Germans as the tour was conducted by following a pre-determined path designated by a "red line" on a map. The hapless Red Cross apparently didn't attempt to divert from the "official" tour route as led by the Germans who also posed questions to the Jewish residents along the way. If the Red Cross attempted to ask the residents questions directly, they were ignored and not answered. Despite this, the Red Cross still apparently formed a positive impression of the town.[9]
    The hoax against the Red Cross was apparently so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film at Theresienstadt. Production of the film began on February 26, 1944. . .
    . . . it [the propaganda film] was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of the Third Reich. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    P.S. PARTS OF THE PROPAGANDA FILM
    • Terezin Propaganda Film (VIDEO, 01:08) - link to youtube.com

    • The Gift Of The Town - Terezin/Theresienstadt (VIDEO, 09:48) - link to youtube.com

    • The Fuhrer gives the Jews a city (VIDEO, 15:37)
    The infamous Nazi propaganda film showing the public how "well" the Jews were treated in Thereisenstadt.
    LINK - link to video.google.com

• Foxman says Google and Facebook are on his team to combat 'internet hate'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 13, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    RE: "Foxman says Google and Facebook are on his team to combat ‘internet hate’" ~ Weissw

    SEE: Fire Foxman, by Joey Kurtzman, Jewcy, 07/08/07
    

    (excerpt)...What’s surprising is how unabashedly forthright Abraham Foxman has become about what motivates him and his institution. In October of 2005, Foxman addressed a classroom of Jewish students at New York University. Young heads nodded and brows furrowed as Foxman riled them with his customary rhetoric: Isn’t it antisemitic for pro-Palestinian groups to seek divestment only from Israel, ignoring the far greater crimes of regimes like Sudan or North Korea? How do we describe this sort of selective flagellation of the world’s only Jewish state, if not as antisemitism?
    "What if the campus Free Tibet club campaigned for divestment from China? Would that be anti-Chinese bigotry?" asked Asaf Shtull-Trauring, a 20-year-old student and conscientious objector from the Israeli army.
    Of course not, answered Foxman, but it was preposterous to compare the two conflicts, what with the Jews’ experience of two millennia of murderous persecution. Shtull-Trauring responded with two questions: Did Foxman mean that selective treatment is okay so long as it’s not directed at Jews? And where did the Anti-Defamation League get off telling Jewish university students which opinions about Israel were acceptable and which verboten?
    The dialogue spiraled into a confrontation. Shtull-Trauring says Foxman, frustrated and under attack, placed his cards on the table, angrily retorting: “I don’t represent you nor the Jewish community! I represent the donors.”
    Foxman’s outburst was surprising not because of its content, but because of its candor. Foxman needn’t bother himself with the trifling concerns of American Jews who happen not to be multimillionaire philanthropists. If he makes the Jewish community less appealing to young Jews, if his theatrics turn us off and turn us away, that’s all beside the point. Foxman’s job is to keep the millionaire benefactors happy: the rest of us can go jump in the Kinneret.
    Without a meaningful mission to pursue, the ADL has resorted to scaremongering to fill its coffers and justify its existence. These efforts have grown increasingly bizarre and damaging...

    ENTIRE POST - link to jewcy.com

• Thaer Halahleh, dying, tells the daughter he's never seen why he took a stand for human dignity
  • DICKERSON3870 May 13, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    RE: "Carve this in the stones of history: a wrenching letter from Thaer Halahleh, on day 75 of hunger strike against his detention without charge, to his two-year-old daughter Lamar, who he has never seen." ~ Weiss

    FROM: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    SENT: Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:27 PM
    SUBJECT: Take Action Now to Help Save the Lives of 2,000 Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons!

    As we approach the 64th anniversary of the Nakba -- the catastrophe in which more than more than 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes and lands, and thousands of others their lives during the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel's creation -- between 1,600 and 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have joined one of the largest hunger strikes in history.
    Two strikers -- Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab -- have refused food for 73 days. Ten have refused food for more than 50 days and are now hospitalized. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Halahleh, Diab, and four others are in "imminent danger of dying." As the prisoners' health deteriorates, the State Department has been silent.
    Please ask the State Department to help save the lives of these nonviolent protestors! Help us get 10,000 signatures before Monday when, with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, we'll deliver our concerns to the State Department!
    • TO SIGN PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org

• Yes, what if Kobe Bryant were an imprisoned Palestinian soccer player?
  • DICKERSON3870 May 12, 2012 at 8:11 pm with 3 replies

    RE: "What if Kobe Bryant were an imprisoned Palestinian soccer player?" ~ Dave Zirin

    FROM: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    SENT: Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:27 PM
    SUBJECT: Take Action Now to Help Save the Lives of 2,000 Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons!

    As we approach the 64th anniversary of the Nakba -- the catastrophe in which more than more than 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes and lands, and thousands of others their lives during the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel's creation -- between 1,600 and 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have joined one of the largest hunger strikes in history.
    Two strikers -- Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab -- have refused food for 73 days. Ten have refused food for more than 50 days and are now hospitalized. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Halahleh, Diab, and four others are in "imminent danger of dying." As the prisoners' health deteriorates, the State Department has been silent.
    Please ask the State Department to help save the lives of these nonviolent protestors! Help us get 10,000 signatures before Monday when, with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, we'll deliver our concerns to the State Department!
    • TO SIGN PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org

• House support for Israel damages prospects for peace
  • DICKERSON3870 May 12, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    RE: "Josh Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation"

    FROM: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    SENT: Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:27 PM
    SUBJECT: Take Action Now to Help Save the Lives of 2,000 Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons!

    As we approach the 64th anniversary of the Nakba -- the catastrophe in which more than more than 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes and lands, and thousands of others their lives during the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel's creation -- between 1,600 and 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have joined one of the largest hunger strikes in history.
    Two strikers -- Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab -- have refused food for 73 days. Ten have refused food for more than 50 days and are now hospitalized. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Halahleh, Diab, and four others are in "imminent danger of dying." As the prisoners' health deteriorates, the State Department has been silent.
    Please ask the State Department to help save the lives of these nonviolent protestors! Help us get 10,000 signatures before Monday when, with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, we'll deliver our concerns to the State Department!
    • TO SIGN PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org

• Protests on behalf of prisoners sweep the West Bank
  • DICKERSON3870 May 12, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    RE: "Protests on behalf of prisoners sweep the West Bank"

    FROM: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    SENT: Thursday, May 10, 2012 6:27 PM
    SUBJECT: Take Action Now to Help Save the Lives of 2,000 Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons!

    As we approach the 64th anniversary of the Nakba -- the catastrophe in which more than more than 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes and lands, and thousands of others their lives during the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel's creation -- between 1,600 and 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have joined one of the largest hunger strikes in history.
    Two strikers -- Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab -- have refused food for 73 days. Ten have refused food for more than 50 days and are now hospitalized. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Halahleh, Diab, and four others are in "imminent danger of dying." As the prisoners' health deteriorates, the State Department has been silent.
    Please ask the State Department to help save the lives of these nonviolent protestors! Help us get 10,000 signatures before Monday when, with the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, we'll deliver our concerns to the State Department!
    • TO SIGN PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org

• Mandy Patinkin speaks his truth
  • DICKERSON3870 May 12, 2012 at 4:43 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "After signing the petition of support for Israeli artists refusing to perform in the settlement of Ariel he [Patinkin] got slammed: '...I was attacked in my own homeland, by my own people' " ~ Robbins

    MY COMMENT: Patinkin is yet another "crack" letting the light in!

    A MID-SPRING AFTERNOON’S MUSICAL INTERLUDE, brought to you courtesy of the makers of new Ziocaine Über-Xtreme®: It’s guaran-damn-teed to blow your effing mind!™
    

    "The birds they sang
    at the break of day
    Start again
    I heard them say
    Don't dwell on what
    has passed away
    or what is yet to be.
    Ah the wars they will
    be fought again
    The holy dove
    She will be caught again
    bought and sold
    and bought again
    the dove is never free.
    ~
    Ring the bells that still can ring
    Forget your perfect offering
    There is a crack in everything
    That's how the light gets in. . ."
    ~ from "Anthem" on 'The Future' album by Leonard Cohen

    • Anthem, Leonard Cohen (VIDEO, 09:33) - link to youtube.com

    P.P.S. FROM SongMeanings.net:
    

    The line "a crack in everything" seems to come from a book by Jack Kornfield on buddhism. The story is that a young man who had lost his leg came to a buddhist monastary thing, and he was extremely angry at life, and always drew these pictures of cracked vases and damaged thing[s], because he felt damaged. Over time, he found inner peace, and changed his outllook, but still drew broken vases. His master asked him one day: "Why do you still draw a crack in the vases you draw, are you not whole?" And he replied "yes, and so are the vases. The crack is how the light gets in" ~ neptune235, 04-17-2005

    SOURCE - link to songmeanings.net

• The Israeli consul is selling 'brand Israel', but very few in one upper west side synagogue are buying
  • DICKERSON3870 May 11, 2012 at 5:08 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "JPEG IMAGE OF A PALE" - me, above

    ELABORATION: This screen capture (of a medieval pale in Sweden) is from the following film.

    Arn: The Knight Templar (Arn: Tempelriddaren), 2007, R, 133 minutes [a very good, but not great, film - J.L.D.]
    Based on Jan Guillou's Crusades trilogy about Swedish Knight Templar Arn Magnusson (Joakim Nätterqvist), this adventure saga follows the son of nobility from his monastic education to his return to the family to help fight for the crown of Sweden.
    That mission is interrupted, however, when Arn impregnates his lover and is sent to the Holy Land, where as penance he must become a warrior for Christ in the battles of the Crusades [with an interesting segment regarding Saladin* - JLD].
    Language: Swedish (English subtitles) DVD/Blu-ray may have an English audio option.
    Netflix Availability: Streaming, DVD and Blu-ray
    • NETFLIX LISTING - link to movies.netflix.com
    • Arn: The Knight Templar, Movie Trailer - link to youtube.com

    * P.S. So much for the power of the "True Cross"!

  • DICKERSON3870 May 11, 2012 at 4:43 pm with 2 replies

    RE: "Aharoni responded that J Street is a special case because they lobby on behalf of Israel's opposition parties, activity which he claimed disrespected Israeli democracy and was beyond the pale." ~ from Philip Harris' article above

    MY COMMENT: Beyond the pale? Lol! How medieval! Open mouth and insert foot!

    SEE "BEYOND THE PALE", phrases.org.uk:
    

    (excerpt). . . This 'pale' is the noun meaning 'a stake or pointed piece of wood'. That meaning is virtually obsolete now except as used in this phrase, but is still in use in the associated words 'paling' (as in paling fence) and 'impale' (as in Dracula movies).
    The paling fence is significant as the term pale became to mean the area enclosed by such a fence and later just the figurative meaning of 'the area that is enclosed and safe'. So, to be 'beyond the pale' was to be outside the area accepted as 'home'.
    Catherine the Great created the Pale of Settlement in Russia in 1791. This was the name given to the western border region of the country, in which Jews were allowed to live. The motivation behind this was to restrict trade between Jews and native Russians. Some Jews were allowed to live, as a concession, 'beyond the pale'.
    Pales were enforced in various other European countries for similar political reasons, notably in Ireland (the Pale of Dublin) and France (the Pale of Calais, which was formed as early as 1360). . .

    SOURCE - link to phrases.org.uk

    • JPEG IMAGE OF A PALE - link to facebook.com

• Liberal Zionists are afraid their parents will reject them if they come out
  • DICKERSON3870 May 11, 2012 at 5:36 pm

    RE: "Anyone here ever seen the movie 'Milk'? About Harvey Milk in San Francisco. Really, really, really powerful movie." ~ Ilyse Hogue

    • Milk (2008) R - link to movies.netflix.com

    • The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) UR - link to movies.netflix.com

• US military officers taught to target civilians and wage 'total war' on Islam
  • DICKERSON3870 May 10, 2012 at 10:39 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "US military officers taught to target civilians and wage ‘total war’ on Islam"

    AN ANTI-WAR CLASSIC: Johnny Got His Gun, 1971, PG, 106 minutes
    Based on the novel by Dalton Trumbo, this disturbing antiwar film chronicles the tragic fate of a World War I soldier (Timothy Bottoms) who survives a mortar shell only to have lost his arms, legs, ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Initially, he doesn't know whether he's dead, alive or dreaming. And though he can't hear, see or speak, he learns how to communicate his most fervent wish: to be taken on tour as evidence of the horrors of war.
    Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland, Diane Varsi, Mike Lee, Kerry MacLane
    Director: Dalton Trumbo
    Netflix Availability: Streaming and DVD (Streaming until 5/15/12)
    • Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
    • IMdB - link to imdb.com
    • ENTIRE FILM ON TouTube: Johnny Got His Gun/1971 (VIDEO, 1:51:53) - link to youtube.com
    • Johnny Got His Gun - DVD Trailer (VIDEO, 01:26) - link to youtube.com
    • Movie Trailer - 1971 - Johnny Got His Gun (VIDEO, 03:34) -link to youtube.com

• 'Follow the money' rule suddenly applies when the issue is gay marriage
  • DICKERSON3870 May 10, 2012 at 3:45 pm

    RE: "‘Follow the money’ rule suddenly applies when the issue is gay marriage" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: OMG, y'all! Phil's countin' again!
    Countin' this,
    and countin' that.
    Countin' the gay donors,
    and countin' the Jewish donors.
    Will it ever end?
    It's a shame he missed his "true calling", y'all.
    He should have been a "bean counter"!

    P.S. CHECK OUT: Pi, 1998, R, 84 minutes
    Darren Aronofsky’s jarring black-and-white brain-bender is a haunting examination of one man’s numerical obsession. The story follows a fragile number theorist who’s on the trail of a 216-digit number that could unlock the secrets of the universe.
    Netflix Availability: Streaming and DVD
    NETFLIX LISTING – link to movies.netflix.com
    Pi movie trailer (VIDEO, 01:41) – link to youtube.com
    π, Trailer (VIDEO, 01:57) – link to youtube.com

• Nowhere to go -- Jahalin Bedouin homes slated for destruction outside Jerusalem
  • DICKERSON3870 May 11, 2012 at 10:02 am

    P.P.P.S. AND THE HYPOCRISY GOES ON!
    "The beat goes on, the beat goes on
    Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
    La de da de de, la de da de da. . ." ~ Sonny & Cher, 1967
    The Beat Goes On (VIDEO 03:27) - link to youtube.com

    SEE: Netanyahu, Israeli cabinet to weigh approval of illegal West Bank outpost, By Barak Ravid and Ophir Bar-Zohar, Haaretz, 5/10/12
    Likud ministers have called on the Prime Minister to sanction Ulpana Hill through legislation after the High Court rejected a state bid to postpone its demolition.
    LINK - link to haaretz.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 10, 2012 at 3:21 pm with 4 replies

    P.S. RE: “Why now? Because now we want to enforce the law.” ~ Major Guy Inbar of Israel
    AND RE: "Oh, the hypocrisy!" ~ me, above

    ALSO SEE: Ulpana can't turn into a memorial for Israel's rule of law ~ Haaretz Editorial, 4/29/12
    

    (excerpt) At the same time that the prime minister and his cabinet protest against what they call "the delegitimization of the State of Israel" - and not only of the occupation - the government is constantly taking actions that underline the illegitimacy of its policies in the occupied territories. The Netanyahu government rallies to the side of developers who built and sold homes on land that belongs to others, despite demolition orders, a peremptory ruling by the High Court of Justice and the prime minister's own promise to carry it out by the end of this month.
    On Friday, the State Attorney's Office notified the High Court that the government was retracting its promise to carry out the eviction order against the Ulpana neighborhood of the Beit El settlement in the West Bank. Unlike the case of the Migron outpost, in which the state requested an extension of three and a half years so that the community could be moved to an adjacent hill, this time the government is requesting a stay in order to review the implementation of the policy of demolishing buildings constructed on private land in the West Bank, including those built without permits in Beit El's Ulpana neighborhood. In its request to the court, the state posited "foreign relations, public and operational considerations" against the rule of law and the right to private property.
    It is hard to imagine a foreign-relations consideration that supports giving official authorization to robbing the property of a person living under Israeli occupation. It must be hoped that elected officials are not implying that a majority of the Israeli public wants a government that violates orders and rulings of the Supreme Court. The pretext of "operational considerations" gives rise to the proliferation of unauthorized outposts such as Ulpana under the noses of Civil Administration inspectors and Israel Defense Forces officers.
    It is a pity that the attorney general is helping to teach the public that some Israelis are above the law, and that it is permitted to spit in the face of the highest judicial instance in the land on their
    behalf. . .

    ENTIRE EDITORIAL - link to haaretz.com

    P.P.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis elaborated in Olmstead v. United States (1928):
    

    "In a government of law, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

  • DICKERSON3870 May 10, 2012 at 3:03 pm with 6 replies

    RE: "Why now? Because now we want to enforce the law." ~ Major Guy Inbar of Israel

    MY COMMENT: Oh, the hypocrisy!

    SEE: Ulpana, high drama in the wild wild West (Bank) ~ by Annie Robbins, Mondoweiss, 4/26/12
    Israel flips 3 West Bank outposts from illegal to legal status this week. Where are the liberal Zionists who are saving the two-state solution?
    

    Israel has reneged on its pledge to demolish Ulpana, an illegal outpost built on Palestinian land just a stones throw from the religious nationalist settlement of Beit El near Ramallah in the West Bank. The reversal is happening days before the anticipated court-ordered demolition May 1st.
    Political intrigue ensues, for the threatened demolition had endangered Netanyahu's Likud-coalition government, attracted international outrage and condemnation, gathered a cast of unsavory characters, and driven Haaretz editorial staff to reference Netanyahu and most of his ministers as "career criminals..undaunted by condemnation or punishment" and call for him to dissolve the government. . .
    . . . All of this is taking place during a week of Israel birthday festivities that are dominating the international press and helping to mask the story of the court case set for next Tuesday. We've got to blast this injustice to the far reaches of the blogosphere between now and next Tuesday so the whole world is perched on the edge of their seats witnessing the political drama/injustice unfold as Israel flips the law in favor of the outpost once again, this time to save Netanyahu's prospects of solidifying his (religious nationalist) grip over the government. . .
    . . . Where are the liberal Zionists? I'd like to see Netanyahu try and avoid confrontation with the Beinart contingent of the American Jewish community. Are they going to step up to the plate between now (three illegal settlements flipped to legal status this week, international law notwithstanding) and next Tuesday?

    SOURCE - link to mondoweiss.net

• Standing up for equality at the 'Equality Forum' celebration of Israel
  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    P.S. RE: "EQUALITY" AS IN THE 'EQUALITY FORUM'

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [2009 Tel Aviv gay centre shooting]:
    

    (excerpts) The 2009 Tel Aviv gay centre shooting resulted in the deaths of two people and injuries to at least fifteen others at the Tel Aviv branch of the Israeli GLBT Association, at the "Bar-Noar" (Hebrew: בר-נוער‎, "Youth Bar"), on Nahmani Street in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 1 August 2009. A 26-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were killed.[1][2] . . .
    . . . As of April 2012, the crime remains unsolved. . .
    . . . The gunman entered the building where a weekly event was being held (in the basement), shot in several directions and then fled on foot.[2][5][6] The building was frequented by gay teenagers who engage in social activities and listen to music.[6][11] The centre was small with one terrace; thus preventing anyone from escaping.[6] They instead hid under a bed and tables as shots were fired.[6][11] Israeli television said the crime scene was a “bloodbath”.[7]. . .
    . . . The shooter was masked, dressed in black and used a pistol to carry out his attack.[2][5][8][11][12] It is not believed his motive was related to nationalist terror but the exact motive is currently unclear.[2] The city’s gay community stated the killer had a homophobic motive while police have cautioned people that the attack may not have been a hate crime and that the motive remains unknown. . .

    SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 4:52 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "the 'Equality Forum' is lending itself to a seven-year multi-million dollar advertising campaign by the state, called 'Brand Israel', which seeks to portray Israel as 'modern and progressive', and to distract from Israel’s violent policies towards the indigenous Palestinian population of segregation and expulsion." ~ Matthew Graber

    MY COMMENT: Israel's hypocrisy (and that of many of its supporters) knows no bounds!

    SEE: Israel's Treatment of Gay Palestinian Asylum Seekers ~ by Caroline Esser, The Washington Note, 6/06/11
    

    (excerpts) . . . The newest way to sell Israel to Americans: LGBT rights. Search gay rights on the Anti-Defamation League's website and what do you find? A ready-to-print and available for order poster that reads, "Which of the Middle East nations protects the legal rights, safety & freedom of the LGBT communities? Only Israel."...
    . . . In their 2008 study, "Nowhere to Run: Gay Palestinian Asylum-Seekers in Israel," Michael Kagan and Anat Ben-Dor describe in detail Israel's unsympathetic and unbending policy towards gay Palestinians. . .
    . . . In pursuit of protection and the ability to openly express their sexuality, there have been at least ten cases in which gay Palestinians have sought refuge in Israel. However, despite their desperation, Israel refuses to even review gay Palestinian applications for asylum (those who have successfully received asylum have had to submit their cases directly to the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva). Moreover, gay Palestinians who have illegally entered Israel have been arrested and promptly deported--returned to the very environments in which their lives were at risk and in which they will now face further danger as they are questioned not only for their sexuality but for their choice to spend time in Israel...

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to thewashingtonnote.com

• Publicly-funded Hebrew charter schools serve as 'vanguard' for Israel --Forward
  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 3:52 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Great reporting by Naomi Zeveloff and Nathan Guttman at the Forward on the extent to which the Jewish charter school movement, which establishes Hebrew-language schools using public funds, is serving a frankly Zionist agenda." ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Do ya think (lol)? [See below for the privately funded version.]

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Sheldon Adelson]:
    

    [excerpt] Sheldon Gary Adelson (born August 4, 1933) is an American business magnate. He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Adelson vastly increased his net worth upon the initial public offering of Las Vegas Sands in December 2004. He is listed in the Forbes 400 as the eighth wealthiest American.[1] His personal wealth is estimated to be $24.9 billion as of March 2012.[1] . . .
    . . . Adelson donated over $25 million to the The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    ALSO FROM WIKIPEDIA [The Adelson Educational Campus]:
    

    In 1980, the Hebrew Academy Las Vegas, opened at the original Temple Beth Sholom in East Las Vegas. Eight years later, Las Vegas businessman Milton I. Schwartz and others created the Milton I. Schwartz Hebrew Academy for elementary-aged children, the first Jewish community day school in Nevada.[citation needed]
    Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson made a major gift in November 2006, for The Adelson School in Summerlin, which grew from 145 students to 500 students today.[citation needed]
    The Adelson Educational Campus consists of three schools:
    • The Lower School provides students from 18 months through 4th grade.
    • The Middle School, grades 5–8.
    • The Upper School, grades 9–12.

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Report from the Palestinian prisoner hunger strike, and the movement growing to support it
  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    Thanks for the info. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel does good work.
    I easily made a donation using PayPal.
    • TO DONATE - link to phr.org.il
    • MORE INFO - link to phr.org.il

• Michael Scheuer says Israeli lobby has tied American gov't down like Gulliver
  • DICKERSON3870 May 13, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    P.P.S. ALSO AS TO “we know better what they’re thinking than they do”, SEE: The Right’s False Prophet, By Kenneth B. McIntyre, The American Conservative, 5/10/12
    

    (excerpts) . . . In 'Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America' Paul Gottfried, the Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College, offers an explanation of the Straussian phenomenon that is concise and compelling. . .
    . . . The second direction from which Gottfried approaches Strauss leads through an examination of the Straussian method and its products. Gottfried provides a critical account of the method and also notes the ahistorical, quasi-legendary, and often hagiographic character of the interpretations that the method produces. The Straussian method consists of two distinct doctrines, neither of which is particularly clear or convincing. First, Strauss asserts that understanding the work of a philosopher involves the reproduction of the author’s intention. Unfortunately, and as Gottfried argues, Strauss never explains what he means by “intention,” nor does he explain how one might reproduce an author’s intention. The second doctrine, however, renders the first irrelevant. Strauss argues that authentic philosophers hide their teaching from the casual reader and only initiates into the true philosophic art can decode the esoteric meaning of such texts. For Strauss and the Straussians, this is not an historical claim but a theoretical one, and it yields an interpretative strategy both naïve and paranoid.
    The results of the Straussian method read like they were written by the intellectual offspring of Madame Blavatsky and Edgar Bergen. It may seem difficult to distinguish between the oracular pronouncements and the intellectual ventriloquism, but that’s because there is no real distinction to be made. As Gottfried notes, there is uncanny similarity between the Straussian reading of texts and the postmodern deconstruction of language. The esoteric claims provide cover for Straussian interpretive preferences and shield against criticism from anyone outside the clique. . .

    ENTIRE BOOK REVIEW - link to theamericanconservative.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 1:39 pm with 1 replies

    P.S. ALSO AS TO “we know better what they’re thinking than they do”, SEE THIS FROM WIKIPEDIA [Team B]:
    

    (excerpts) Team B was a competitive analysis exercise commissioned by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1970s to analyze threats the Soviet Union posed to the security of the United States. . .
    . . . The Team B reports became the intellectual foundation for the idea of "the window of vulnerability" and of the massive arms buildup that began toward the end of the Carter administration and accelerated under President Ronald Reagan.[4]
    Some scholars and policy-makers, such as Anne Cahn of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, later criticized the Team B project's findings.[5][6] . . .
    . . . According to Fred Kaplan, "In retrospect, the Team B report (which has since been declassified) turns out to have been wrong on nearly every point.[27]. . .
    . . . Team B came to the conclusion in their report[28] that the Soviets had or could develop an entirely new anti-submarine detection system that used a system that did not depend on sound and was, thus, undetectable by contemporary Western technology, even though no evidence existed for it or its deployment, other than money spent on research, and when the Western experts believed that such a system would be impossible. When the CIA argued that the economic chaos in the Soviet Union was hindering their ability to produce an air defense system, Team B countered by arguing that the Soviet Union was trying to deceive the American public and claimed that the Russian air defense system worked perfectly. Some members were even considering promoting a first strike policy against the U.S.S.R.[8][11][29]
    Team B also concluded that the Soviet Union did not adhere to the doctrine of mutual assured destruction, but rather believed it could win a nuclear war outright. Pipes -- in his "Commentary" article -- argued that CIA suffered from "mirror-imaging" (i.e., from assuming that the other side had to-and did-think and evaluate exactly the same way). . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    P.S. "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us." ~ Neocon Creed (This creed also works for Team B, Republicans, Fox News, Fundies, etc.)

  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 1:14 pm with 3 replies

    RE: "Our political leaders in both parties have consistently told Americans in essence, forget what our enemy is saying, we know better what they're thinking than they do." ~ Michael Scheuer

    MY COMMENT: And yet they also say (particularly in reference to Ahmadenijad's supposedly saying "wipe Israel off the map"): "You have to take a man at his word." ~ George W. Bush, circa 2007

    AND AS TO "we know better what they're thinking than they do",
    SEE: "Rush From Reality", By Rick Perlstein, 02/26/09
    

    (excerpts) I’ve been listening to Rush Limbaugh for going on twenty years now. . .
    . . . And so, yesterday, I visited the funhouse again, to see what the hall of mirrors looked like after President Obama’s triumphant State of the Union address (68% of viewers had a very positive reaction...)—the day after, in other words, conservatism was ground into the dust once again.
    Rush came out of the gate blaring, declaiming the irrelevance of such poll. . .
    . . . He went on, of course. And on, and on, and on, and on. Came the first caller, who made the mistake of pointing to Obama’s actual language in the speech, and got interrupted by El Rushbo— “Pay no attention to what he says. He means the opposite in most cases. What he says is irrelevant.”
    . . . I knew I’d heard this before. This was the doctrine of the “principle of reversal” enunciated by John Birch Society founder Robert Welch. Welch explained that in order to understand what the Communists are saying, you have to translate it into its opposite. Though it was a principle, of course, that Welch frequently honored in the breach. When a Communist said something he thought was embarrassing, Welch hammered home that the Communist meant exactly what he said.
    The sole authority, of course, qualified to decide when a Communist meant the opposite of what he said, and when he meant exactly what he said was Robert Welch. . .

    SOURCE – link to ourfuture.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 9, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    RE: "thanks to this neocon site [American Thinker]" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Or "Americun Stinker", as the cads refer to it at Sadly No!

• Israeli military raids office of human rights organization 'Stop the Wall'; steals computers and hard drives
  • DICKERSON3870 May 8, 2012 at 9:55 pm

    RE: "Israeli military raids office of human rights organization ‘Stop the Wall’; steals computers and hard drives"

    MY COMMENT: Shades of Kristallnacht! If it looks like a duck fascism, swims like a duck fascism, and quacks like a duck fascism, then it probably is a duck fascism.

    Duck test - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Shaul Mofaz, Netanyahu's new partner, ordered 'revenge' op that killed Palestinian police in 2002
  • DICKERSON3870 May 8, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    RE: "Mofaz is a military man; he was the Israeli military’s Chief of Staff during the Second Intifada... you can forget about Mofaz saving peace negotiations." ~ Alex Kane

    SPEAKING OF THE SECOND INTIFADA, SEE: The Dogs of War: The Next Intifada, By Uri Avnery, Counterpunch, 9/03/11
    

    (excerpt)...The second (“al-Aqsa”) intifada started after the breakdown of the 2000 Camp David conference and Ariel Sharon’s deliberately provocative “visit” to the Temple Mount. The Palestinians held non-violent mass demonstrations. The army responded with selective killings. A sharpshooter accompanied by an officer would take position in the path of the protest, and the officer would point out selected targets – protesters who looked like “ringleaders”. They were killed.
    This was highly effective. Soon the non-violent demonstrations ceased and were replaced by very violent (“terrorist”) actions. With those the army was back on familiar ground.
    All in all, during the second intifada 4546 Palestinians were killed, of whom 882 were children, as against 1044 Israelis, 716 of them civilians, including 124 children...

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to counterpunch.org

    P.S. ALSO WORTHWHILE:
    • Weimar Revisited, by Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, 11/21/11
    LINK - link to original.antiwar.com
    • Avnery on McCarthyism Israeli-style: "Hi, Joe!", by Uri Avnery, mwcnews.net, 1/08/11
    LINK - link to mwcnews.net

• 'Death of a Salesman' came out of an intermarriage
  • DICKERSON3870 May 8, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    RE: "I am talking about the role Miller sought in American life: of artistically/spiritually mediating between Americans, seeking to resolve cultural problems." ~ Weiss

    AN EXCELLENT BBC DOCUMENTARY: The Atheism Tapes (2004)
    As part of the making of the documentary series A Brief History of Disbelief, Jonathan Miller filmed conversations with some very distinguished minds.
    In this ground-breaking series, neurologist turned playwright and atheist Jonathan Miller interviewed six of today’s leading men of letters and science.
    New York Times best-selling author Richard Dawkins, Philosophers Daniel Dennett and Colin McGinn, playwright Arthur Miller, theologian Denys Turner and physicist Steven Weinberg discuss their personal intellectual journeys and offer illuminating analyses of non-theism from a wide range of perspectives.
    • To watch the full documentary (for free) - link to topdocumentaryfilms.com
    • Netflix DVDs - link to movies.netflix.com

    SEGMENTS ON TouTube
    • The Atheism Tapes - Arthur Miller (VIDEO, 29:00) - link to youtube.com
    • The Atheism Tapes - Steven Weinberg (VIDEO, 29:12) - link to youtube.com
    • OTHERS - link to youtube.com

• It's Good to be the King: Netanyahu scraps elections, buys off opposition and cements power with new unity gov't
  • DICKERSON3870 May 8, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    RE: "It’s Good to be the King: Netanyahu scraps elections, buys off opposition and cements power with new unity gov’t"

    ALL OF THIS INTRIGUE REMINDS ME OF AN EXCELLENT ITALIAN FILM:
    Il divo: La spettacolare vita di Giulio Andreotti, 2008, NR, 110 min.
    Paolo Sorrentino directs this superbly entertaining docudrama about the colorful life and political career of Italy's Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and his party's decades-long throttlehold on Italian politics. Highlighting accusations of mafia ties, Sorrentino pulls no punches as he lays any number of corruption scandals and even political assassinations at the politician's feet, all with a sly sense of humor. Toni Servillo stars as Andreotti.
    Language: Italian (English subtitles)
    Netflix Availability: DVD and Blu-ray
    • Netflix Listing - link to movies.netflix.com
    • IMdB - link to imdb.com
    • IL Divo Trailer (VIDEO, 02:07) - link to youtube.com

• High Court refuses Israeli gov't petition on Ulpana, will the reprecussions be felt in the Israeli elections?
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    MY FAVORITE: "The law is an ass!" ~ from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

    AND - Memorable quotes for "...And Justice for All." (1979)
    

    Arthur Kirkland: That man is guilty! That man, there, that man is a slime! he is a *slime*! If he's allowed to go free, then something really wrong is goin' on here! "
    Judge Rayford: "Mr. Kirkland you are out of order!"
    Arthur Kirkland: "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order! That man, that sick, crazy, depraved man, raped and beat that woman there, and he'd like to do it again! He *told* me so! It's just a show! It's a show! It's 'Let's Make A Deal'! 'Let's Make A Deal'! Hey Frank, you wanna 'Make A Deal'? I got an insane judge who likes to beat the sh_t out of women! Whaddya wanna gimme Frank, 3 weeks probation?"
    Frank Bowers (the prosecutor): "*Dammit!*"
    Arthur Kirkland: [to Judge Fleming] "You, you sonofabitch, you! You're supposed to *stand* for somethin'! You're supposed to protect people! But instead you rape and murder them!"
    [dragged out of court by bailiffs]
    Arthur Kirkland: "You killed McCullough! You killed him! Hold it! Hold it! I just completed my opening statement!"
    [Judge Rayford fires a gun in his courtroom, drawing attention]
    Judge Rayford: "Gentlemen, need I remind you you're in a court of law?"

    SOURCE - link to imdb.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 10:07 pm

    P.P.S. “Ramblers ’78″ hoodie (screen capture) - link to facebook.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 8:48 pm with 1 replies

    P.S. A MOST DELIGHTFUL (ALBEIT QUAINT) LITTLE "COMING OF AGE ROAD TRIP" FILM FROM BELGIUM!
    Eldorado, 2008, NR, 81 minutes
    When he walks in on Elie (Fabrice Adde) trying to rob him, car dealer Yvan (writer-director Bouli Lanners) spares the would-be thief's life and instead forces the young drug addict to accompany him on a cross-country road trip. Packed in Yvan's beat-up Chevy, the unlikely pair sets off on an unpredictable journey through the Belgium countryside and cross paths with a parade of characters, including a supposed psychic and a blue-haired nudist.
    Language: French (English subtitles)
    Netflix Availability: Streaming and DVD
    Netflix Listing - link to movies.netflix.com
    Eldorado Movie Trailer (VIDEO, 1:35) - link to youtube.com

    P.S. This film is like the old 'Theater of the Absurd' that has now become the new 'Theater of the Real'. And Didier's lime green "Ramblers '78" hoodie is a real "collector's item". It has such beaucoup joie de vivre that it could have easily won the Lacoste Elysée Prize ! ! !

  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 4:41 pm with 4 replies

    RE: “To my great dismay, the State Attorney’s Office is fighting here against the public interest; against the rule of law…this is a total breakdown of the legal system and the rule of law. What will the State Attorney’s Office say to a regular citizen who reneges on a plea bargain? What moral high ground will the State have then?" ~ Attorney Michael Sfard, Legal Advisor to Yesh Din

    MY CONTRIBUTION - Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis elaborated in Olmstead v. United States (1928):
    

    "In a government of law, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

• ICG: The peace process is a 'collective addiction that serves all manner of needs, reaching an agreement no longer being the main one'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    RE: "Hope someone in Washington is reading it (I won't hold my breath). " ~ A. Horowitz
    AND RE: "The first step in breaking what has become an injurious addiction to a futile process is to recognise...that the emperor has no clothes." ~ ICG

    FROM: Josh Ruebner, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    SENT: Monday, May 07, 2012 12:16 PM

    Take Action: House Vote as Early as Tomorrow to Expand U.S.-Israeli Military Ties
    Dear ****,
    We need you to take action right now to make your voice heard in opposition to a resolution that the House will vote on as early as tomorrow to strengthen the U.S.-Israel military relationship.
    Sign this petition to Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the sponsor of the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, opposing this resolution. If we get 10,000 or more signatures on this petition by tomorrow, we’ll personally deliver it to Rep. Cantor before the vote. . .
    TO SIGN THE PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org

• Secrecy pact over Israel's nukes, reached by Nixon and Meir, serves policy of 'nuclear coercion' to avoid peace deal
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    RE: "This morning we learned that the proverbial smoke-filled room of political dealmaking in American politics has now been merged with the smoke-filled room of Israeli politics" ~ Weiss

    FROM: Josh Ruebner, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    SENT: Monday, May 07, 2012 12:16 PM

    Take Action: House Vote as Early as Tomorrow to Expand U.S.-Israeli Military Ties
    Dear ****,
    We need you to take action right now to make your voice heard in opposition to a resolution that the House will vote on as early as tomorrow to strengthen the U.S.-Israel military relationship.
    Sign this petition to Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the sponsor of the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, opposing this resolution. If we get 10,000 or more signatures on this petition by tomorrow, we’ll personally deliver it to Rep. Cantor before the vote. . .
    TO SIGN THE PETITION - link to salsa.democracyinaction.org

• After LGBT forum, Oren will headline for notorious homophobic pastor John Hagee
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 12:22 pm with 3 replies

    RE: "John Hagee has a record of making racist, sexist, anti-Catholic, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic remarks" ~ Phan Nguyen

    MY COMMENT: Nonetheless, the Houston Jewish Federation and the Jewish Agency apparently consider "Pastor" John Hagee (and his $3 million gift) to be 'oh so kosher' ! ! !

    SEE: Houston Jewish Federation, Jewish Agency Fund Im Tirzu’s Assault on Israeli Universities ~ by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 3/17/10
    

    (excerpts) What do the Houston Jewish federation, the Jewish Agency, John Hagee, and Im Tirzu have in common? They’re all either directly or indirectly funding a major assault on academic freedom on Israeli campuses...
    . . . The Israeli finance website, Calcalist, reports that John Hagee donated $120,000 to Im Tirzu in 2009 through the Jewish Agency. The money had been transferred to the Agency by the Houston Jewish Federation as part of an overall $5-million gift. $3-million of that came from [John Hagee's] CUFI and went towards its largely pro-settler Israel philanthropy. Hagee passed the gift through the Agency in order to qualify for a U.S. tax deduction. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to richardsilverstein.com
    ALSO SEE: Pastor Hagee: The Antichrist Is Gay, "Partially Jewish, As Was Adolph Hitler", by Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post, 6/02/08
    LINK - link to huffingtonpost.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    RE: "Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren gave the keynote address at the Equality Forum’s 'International Equality Dinner' in Philadelphia. The dinner was part of the Equality Forum’s annual Global LGBT Summit, which this year highlighted Israel as a 'featured nation'." ~ Phan Nguyen

    SEE: Israel's Treatment of Gay Palestinian Asylum Seekers ~ by Caroline Esser, The Washington Note, 6/06/11
    

    (excerpts)...The newest way to sell Israel to Americans: LGBT rights. Search gay rights on the Anti-Defamation League's website and what do you find? A ready-to-print and available for order poster that reads, "Which of the Middle East nations protects the legal rights, safety & freedom of the LGBT communities? Only Israel."...
    . . . In their 2008 study, "Nowhere to Run: Gay Palestinian Asylum-Seekers in Israel," Michael Kagan and Anat Ben-Dor describe in detail Israel's unsympathetic and unbending policy towards gay Palestinians. . .
    ...In pursuit of protection and the ability to openly express their sexuality, there have been at least ten cases in which gay Palestinians have sought refuge in Israel. However, despite their desperation, Israel refuses to even review gay Palestinian applications for asylum (those who have successfully received asylum have had to submit their cases directly to the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva). Moreover, gay Palestinians who have illegally entered Israel have been arrested and promptly deported--returned to the very environments in which their lives were at risk and in which they will now face further danger as they are questioned not only for their sexuality but for their choice to spend time in Israel...

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to thewashingtonnote.com

• That was Jane Harman of Newsweek trying to quash Medea Benjamin's stellar soliloquy against drones
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    RE: "These women have put their bodies on the line, and been great leaders. Salute them." ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: They never cease to amaze me. I wish I had as much as 1/10 of their commitment.

• Operation Glass Houses: IDF agent provocateurs admit to throwing stones at the IDF in Bilin
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 11:46 am

    P.S. ALSO SEE: Unnecessary killing in West Bank, Haaretz Editorial, 5/06/12
    

    (excerpt) Three brothers from the burglar-plagued West Bank village of Kafr Ramun wake up in the middle of the night and spot two suspicious figures near their home. They ask them to identify themselves, but the suspicious characters keep moving toward their house. The brothers try to chase off the intruders with sticks and kitchen knives, but the intruders open fire on the men with handguns they have kept hidden. Only the next day do the brothers discover that the two suspicious figures were undercover operatives of the Israel Defense Forces' Duvdevan unit, disguised as Arabs, who were soon joined by a large IDF force.
    The soldiers fired no less than 11 bullets point-blank at the brothers; some continued to fire after the men lay wounded on the ground. The wounded men say they were left to bleed for almost an hour without medical attention. A soldier kicked one of the wounded brothers in the head. The outcome: the younger brother, Rashad Shawakhah, 28, died of his wounds and the two others, Anwar and Akram, were severely wounded.
    The details of this serious incident, which happened on March 23, were chronicled by Gideon Levy and Alex Levac ("The 'burglars' were soldiers," Haaretz, May 4 ). The IDF claimed at first that three "terrorists" had tried to stab IDF soldiers and announced that it would not open a Military Police probe - contrary to the policy of investigating any killing in the territories. Only a month later, following the intervention of the human rights group B'Tselem, did the IDF reverse its surprising initial decision and the Military Advocate General ordered an investigation.
    However, no one has yet approached the surviving brothers to take their testimony. . .

    ENTIRE EDITORIAL - link to haaretz.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 11:27 am with 1 replies

    RE: "Undercover soldiers hurled stones in the 'general direction' of IDF soldiers as part of their activity to counter weekly demonstrations in the Palestinian village of Bil'in" ~ Haaretz

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Mista'arvim]:
    

    Mista'arvim (Hebrew: מסתערבים‎, lit. Arabized; Arabic: مستعربين‎, Musta'arabin) is the name given to those counter-terrorism units of the Israel Defense Forces in which soldiers are specifically trained to disguise themselves as Arabs in order to kill or capture a wanted terrorist. These are also commonly known as the 'Arab Platoons'. In Tom Clancy's Op-Center: Acts of War, it is stated that Mista'arvim do not allow their real identities to become known to people outside their unit, and that even when they are undercover, they go to great lengths to avoid being recorded. They are also said to be trained in counter-detection of human or mechanical surveillance. . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Are Obama and Netanyahu now joined at the hip for election season?
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 10:57 am

    RE: "Obama will be compelled to say over and over in the next few months that he stands by Israel and Netanyahu is a man of peace...And if Obama does anything to question that narrative and undermine Netanyahu, the Israel lobby will go after Obama" ~ Weiss

    FOR INSTANCE, SEE: Barre Seid Plausibly Denies Funding ‘Obsession,’ All the While Doing Precisely That, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 01/26/12
    

    (excerpt) Justin Elliott has finally solved the riddle of who gave $17-million to Clarion Fund to distribute 28 million DVDs of its anti-Muslim porn (not as in sex) film "Obsession" during the 2008 presidential election. Well, to be more specific, we know who, or more precisely what gave the gift to Clarion: Donor’s Capital Trust. But till now, we didn’t know who gave the gift to that arch-conservative donor advised fund. Now, we know, thanks to Justin that it was computer power strip king Barre Seid (bio). Here’s Clarion’s 990 form addendum documenting Seid’s gift. This complicated funding process, designed to provide plausible deniability to Seid, thus allows his assistant, in the Salon story, to deny Seid funded the film:
    “Mr. Seid did not make any contributions to the Clarion Fund.”
    She’s right, technically. He didn’t. DCT did. But DCT wouldn’t have without Seid’s gift to it. You see how these dudes operate? Is this legal? Should it be? . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to richardsilverstein.com

    P.S. For 2012 substitute "Iranium" for "Obsession" ! ! !

• Who's the anti-Semite?
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 9:38 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "the 'don’t air dirty laundry in public' practical principle long cherished by many Jewish folk..." ~ Citizen

    REPLY: Long cherished by many folk, period! And corporations! And all kinds of institutions! And governments*! And churches! Need I go on?
    And "don’t air dirty laundry in public" as a practical matter often translates into "repress/suppress the living hell out of the truth" (sometimes to the point of self-delusion)!

    * I.F. STONE (1967): “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.” ~ In a Time of Torment, 1961-1967 (1967), p. 317
    SOURCE – link to en.wikiquote.org

  • DICKERSON3870 May 6, 2012 at 1:25 pm with 4 replies

    RE: "Who’s the anti-Semite?" ~ Weiss

    ALSO SEE: Gunter the Terrible, By Uri Avnery, The Palestine Chronicle, 4/13/12

    Stop me if I have told you this joke before:
    Somewhere in the US, a demonstration takes place. The police arrive and beat the protesters mercilessly.
    “Don’t hit me,” someone shouts, “I am an anti-communist!”
    “I couldn't give a damn what kind of a communist you are!” a policeman answers as he raises his baton.
    The first time I told this joke was when a German group visited the Knesset and met with German-born members, including me.
    They went out of their way to praise Israel, lauding everything we had been doing, condemning every bit of criticism, however harmless it might be. It became downright embarrassing, since some of us in the Knesset were very critical of our government’s policy in the occupied territories.
    For me, this extreme kind of pro-Semitism is just disguised anti-Semitism. Both have a basic belief in common: that Jews – and therefore Israel – are something apart, not to be measured by the standards applied to everybody else. . .

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to palestinechronicle.com

    P.S.
    • "Threads" by This Will Destroy You on the album 'This Will Destroy You' (VIDEO, 05:42) - link to youtube.com

    • Murcof: "Mir", from the album 'Martes' (VIDEO, 06:42) - link to youtube.com

• Watching propaganda in a Missouri synagogue
  • DICKERSON3870 May 6, 2012 at 2:24 pm with 1 replies

    P.S. ALSO SEE NBC News: Israeli Army in Haiti Created “The Best Field Medicine Available” (VIDEO, 02:43) – link to frgdr.com

    SAME VIDEO (02:43) AT YouTube – link to youtube.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 6, 2012 at 2:17 pm with 2 replies

    RE: "...whereas american israel firsters have their zionist occupier entity’s brief propaganda mission to haiti to brag about." ~ yourstruly

    SEE: The Zionization of Disaster Relief, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 01/19/10
    

    (excerpts). . . at Israel’s Haiti field hospital, they delivered what the Israeli PR flacks called “the first baby since the earthquake.” The medical staff urged the woman to name her baby “Israel” (who, if he reaches adulthood, would never be welcome in Israel) and she was only to eager to oblige. Another Israeli PR coup! . . .
    . . . Didn’t know there was anything particularly Zionist about providing disaster relief? You learn something new every day. This is a story of exploiting the suffering of poor, defenseless Haitians on behalf of Israeli triumphalism.
    Sol Salbe translated an eye-opening column from "Yediot" by an Israeli doctor who was an integral member of all Israeli international disaster response teams until recently. Then he made the mistake of writing a mildly critical statement about Israeli disaster relief efforts. As a result, he was relieved of his obligation for further IDF service and further participation in the disaster relief program. The op ed is so revealing (and not yet available online in English) I’m going to quote large sections. . .
    

    • Public Relations instead of saving lives - Sending portable toilets to Haiti would have been a better option, but this does not provide good photo opportunities. Israeli missions to disaster areas in the past have shown that such activity was in vain.
    By Yoel Donchin
    I received my final exemption from the army after I published an article which said that the State of Israel acts like the proverbial Boy Scout, who insists on doing a good deed daily and helping an old lady cross the road even against her will. . .
    . . . Generally speaking, we start preparing for such a mission within hours of the announcement of a natural disaster. Most often the Israeli mission team is the first one to land in the area. Like those who climb Mount Everest, it plants its flag on the highest peak available, announcing to all and sundry that the site has been conquered. And in order to ensure that the public is aware of this sporting achievement, the mission is accompanied by media representatives, photographers, an IDF spokesman’s office squad and others. . .

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to richardsilverstein.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 6, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    RE: "Shore also founded the Clarion Fund, and under its auspices produced another documentary, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. Twenty-eight million copies of Obsession were distributed as free newspaper inserts in swing states before the 2008 election. . . " ~ George Smith

    SEE: Barre Seid Plausibly Denies Funding ‘Obsession,’ All the While Doing Precisely That, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 01/26/12
    

    (excerpt) Justin Elliott has finally solved the riddle of who gave $17-million to Clarion Fund to distribute 28 million DVDs of its anti-Muslim porn (not as in sex) film "Obsession" during the 2008 presidential election. Well, to be more specific, we know who, or more precisely what gave the gift to Clarion: Donor’s Capital Trust. But till now, we didn’t know who gave the gift to that arch-conservative donor advised fund. Now, we know, thanks to Justin that it was computer power strip king (bet you didn’t know there was such a beast, did you?) Barre Seid (bio). Here’s Clarion’s 990 form addendum documenting Seid’s gift. This complicated funding process, designed to provide plausible deniability to Seid, thus allows his assistant, in the Salon story, to deny Seid funded the film:
    “Mr. Seid did not make any contributions to the Clarion Fund.”
    She’s right, technically. He didn’t. DCT did. But DCT wouldn’t have without Seid’s gift to it. You see how these dudes operate? Is this legal? Should it be? ...

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to richardsilverstein.com

    P.S.
    • Track 17, "Last Days", from Max Richter's amazing album, 'MemoryHouse' which was made in 2002 (VIDEO, 06:38) - link to youtube.com
    • Fanshawe: "El Ten Eleven" from the albumn 'El Ten Eleven' (2004)
    [VIDEO, 05:06] - link to youtube.com

• Olmert says 'superior powers' -- U.S. Israel lobby-- took him out in 2009
  • DICKERSON3870 May 5, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    RE: "He [Olmert] said he hoped his successor, Netanyahu, would adopt his peace proposal - which included the division of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital - but that so far this had not happened." ~ CNN

    MY COMMENT: Nor will it happen!

    SEE - Netanyahu: I'm not bound by Olmert pledges, won't evacuate settlements, By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz, 1/30/09
    

    (excerpt) Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he would not be bound by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's commitments to evacuate West Bank settlements and withdraw from the territories.
    "I will not keep Olmert's commitments to withdraw and I won't evacuate settlements. Those understandings are invalid and unimportant," Netanyahu said.
    Together with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert arrived at these understandings in final status talks with the Palestinians, which included settlement evacuation, dividing Jerusalem and returning to 1967 borders.
    After Netanyahu and senior Likud officials blasted Olmert and Livni's "promises" and accused Livni of agreeing to divide Jeruslem, she was forced to disassociate herself from the understandings. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to haaretz.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 5, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    RE: "Now I'm waiting for Olmert to say what Americans don't want to hear, that the Israel lobby hurt Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992." ~ Weiss

    ALSO SEE: The CIA/Likud Sinking of Jimmy Carter, by Robert Parry, Consortium News, 06/24/11
    

    (excerpts)...It is far easier to assure the American people that no such thing could occur, that Israel’s Likud – whatever its differences with Washington over Middle East peace policies – would never seek to subvert a U.S. president, and that CIA dissidents – no matter how frustrated by political constraints – would never sabotage their own government.
    But the evidence points in that direction, and there are some points that are not in dispute. For instance, there is no doubt that CIA Old Boys and Likudniks had strong motives for seeking President Jimmy Carter’s defeat in 1980.
    Inside the CIA. . .
    . . . As for Israel, Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin was furious over Carter’s high-handed actions at Camp David in 1978 forcing Israel to trade the occupied Sinai to Egypt for a peace deal. Begin feared that Carter would use his second term to bully Israel into accepting a Palestinian state on West Bank lands that Likud considered part of Israel’s divinely granted territory.
    Former Mossad and Foreign Ministry official David Kimche described Begin’s attitude in his 1991 book, The Last Option, saying that Israeli officials had gotten wind of “collusion” between Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat “to force Israel to abandon her refusal to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
    Kimche continued, “This plan – prepared behind Israel’s back and without her knowledge – must rank as a unique attempt in United States’s diplomatic history of short-changing a friend and ally by deceit and manipulation.”
    However, Begin recognized that the scheme required Carter winning a second term in 1980 when, Kimche wrote, “he would be free to compel Israel to accept a settlement of the Palestinian problem on his and Egyptian terms, without having to fear the backlash of the American Jewish lobby...
    . . . Yet, while motive is an important element in solving a mystery, it does not constitute proof by itself. What must be examined is whether there is evidence that the motive was acted upon, whether Menachem Begin’s government and disgruntled CIA officers covertly assisted the Reagan-Bush campaign in contacting Iranian officials to thwart Carter’s hostage negotiations.
    On that point the evidence is strong though perhaps not ironclad. Still, a well-supported narrative does exist describing how the October Surprise scheme may have gone down with the help of CIA personnel, Begin’s government, some right-wing intelligence figures in Europe, and a handful of other powerbrokers in the United States. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to consortiumnews.com

• RIP MCA: Yauch challenged Islamophobia and US militarism in the Middle East on MTV in 1998
  • DICKERSON3870 May 4, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    And especially if you don't get "No Sleep till Brooklyn" (VIDEO, 04:47), I might add!

• Bin Laden docs show that alleged Iran-Al Qaeda alliance is neocon hype
  • DICKERSON3870 May 4, 2012 at 6:04 pm

    RE: "the Weekly Standard has printed Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies three times in the past two months, all of them articles on the Al Qaeda-Iran connection." ~ Alex Kane

    MY COMMENT: Thomas Joscelyn of the (proto-fascist) Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is also becoming a regular on the PBS Newshour.
    It will not surprise me if in 10-20 years, the majority of PBS viewers are right-wing Jews and Christian fundamentalists (i.e. hardcore Zionists).

• It took decades for South Africa boycott resolutions to gain traction
  • DICKERSON3870 May 4, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    RE: "It took decades for South Africa boycott resolutions to gain traction" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: I recall going in the mid-1980s to our Methodist church in the fairly affluent "Buckhead" area of Atlanta on a Sunday when the pastor allowed a guest speaker from an international Methodist group to speak briefly to the congregation about the duty of Christians to oppose apartheid in South Africa. On the way out of church, I thanked the speaker and our pastor for addressing the issue of apartheid.
    I heard a few weeks later from my mother that some members of the church were trying to have the pastor fired for inviting the speaker from the int'l Methodist group (who had disapproved of apartheid).
    I have not been back to church since that time.

• Israel's sassy gay best friend tells it to 'look at your life and look at your choices' before you start WW3
  • DICKERSON3870 May 4, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    RE: "Israel’s sassy gay best friend tells it to ‘look at your life and look at your choices’ before you start WW3" ~ Weiss

    MY CONTRIBUTION: "Now that's sassy!" ~ Russell Clark, Senior Editor
    of Sassy Magazine

    • Sassy's Sassiest Boys (VIDEO, 04:33) - link to nbc.com

• 'Jewish Council for Public Affairs' mounts denial campaign against '60 Minutes'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 4, 2012 at 11:53 am

    RE: "People are cowed at the thought of taking on the shrieking Israel absolutists, the ones who imagine themselves every day saving six million lives and their critics as hastening the slaughter." ~ Rick Perlstein (author of "Nixonland")

    MY COMMENT: I knew Rick Perlstein was an I.F. Stoner! I just knew it! That's how the light gets in.

    I.F. STONE (1967): “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.” ~ from In a Time of Torment, 1961-1967 (1967), p. 317
    SOURCE – link to en.wikiquote.org

    P.S. Thank CBS for Telling the Story of Palestinian Christians!
    CBS reporter Bob Simon highlighted the story of Palestinian Christians on the April 22nd episode of 60 Minutes. Express your appreciation to CBS for telling the often forgotten story of Palestinian Christians by sending them an email (pre-written and editable).
    • TO SEND EMAIL - link to org2.democracyinaction.org

    • ALSO: CLICK HERE to sign JVP’s petition which has already gathered over 38,000 signatures. (Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots organization dedicated to promoting equality, democracy and self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.)

    P.P.S. ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM RICK PERLSTEIN:
    

    (excerpt) . . . In the suburban Midwestern Reform Jewish world I was raised in, in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, grown men built plastic scale models of Israeli tanks and F-15 jets and displayed them throughout the house, dangling the warplanes from bedroom ceilings with fishing line. My dad, who had a replica Uzi sub-machine gun on his office wall, wore a tiepin that read, in Hebrew letters, Zachor, which means "remember." What was meant to be remembered was the "six million," the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, a number seared into all of our souls – at home, in Sunday school, at religious services, and at the Jewish Community Center summer camp in the Wisconsin North Woods, where we began each morning by raising the Israeli and American flags side by side.
    This all felt right and proper. What didn't sit so well (with me, at any rate) was the catechism that accompanied the injunction to remember. It held that the next six million, just like the poem says, were still getting ready to die, right here in River City – or in Australia, in Timbuktu, in our own Milwaukee, or anywhere else Jews were granted the privilege – the temporary, conditional privilege — to live. The one safe haven: Israel, whose formidable tanks and planes would hold the line against the eliminationist contempt in which most of the world held us. The message provided a kind of quasi-spiritual ballast to our acquisitive upper-middle-class lives; but as an morally precocious little dude I found it all so far from observable reality, it made me want to puke. . .

    SOURCE - link to m.rollingstone.com

• Israeli dramaturgist: 'Habima theatre is an active participant in Palestinian oppression'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 3, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    RE: "Habima’s critics in Britain do not claim that the theatre is unworthy of participation in the festival because it is Israeli, nor do the claim that is unworthy because it represents a country that violates human rights. They object to Habima because it appears in the Ariel Cultural Centre." ~ Vardit Shalfy

    MY COMMENT: Apparently "Pastor" John Hagee and his Christian Zionist followers provided much of the funding for the Ariel Cultural Centre.

    SEE: Recruiting Brecht to Whitewash Occupation, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 4/26/10
    

    (excerpts) Poor Bertolt Brecht. He’s rolling over in his grave after learning that Israel’s cultural commissars are exploiting him to whitewash the Occupation. Haaretz reports that four maor Israeli theater companies will grace the boards of the new cultural center in Ariel, satirically referred to in one blog post on the subject as “the capital of Samaria.” It will be the first time any major Israeli company has performed in the Conquered Territories. Ironically, one of the plays to be performed is The Caucasian Chalk-Circle by Brecht. . .
    . . . Ariel’s mayor [Ron Nachman] disingenously professes not to have a clue why there should be any controversy. . .
    . . . Nachman wants Israeli liberal culture to buttress his settler enterprise. And the Israeli arts community appears only too willing to go along for the ride.
    News accounts note that completion of the project was delayed for 20 years for lack of funding. Without providing details, they say that Nachman recently secured funding to complete the center. Dare we guess who might’ve been the Sugar Daddy? John Hagee’s Israel-settler philanthropy notes a $500,000 gift in return for naming the main building of Ariel’s Milken Sports Complex for Hagee. Since so much of the settlement’s infrastructure and amenities are funded by Hagee and other Christian Zionists, it’s quite possible that Israeli theatergoers have Christian Zionist philanthropy to thank for ruining their theater seasons with potential subscriber boycotts and the like. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to richardsilverstein.com

• Obama nutmegs Romney with Netanyahu condolence call referencing 'the Jewish people'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 2, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    P.S. ALSO SEE: The late Benzion Netanyahu’s appalling views on Arabs, by Larry Derfner, +972 Magazine, 4/30/12
    LINK - link to 972mag.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 2, 2012 at 12:07 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "President Obama called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel today from Air Force One to express his personal condolences on the death of his father, Benzion Netanyahu." ~ the White House

    SEE - Bibi’s Father’s Answer to the ‘Arab Problem': Hang’ Em in the Town Square, By Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 4/04/09
    

    (excerpts) Imagine, if you will, if Barack Obama’s real father was Rev. Jeremiah Wright and imagine, if you will, that Wright gave an eight-page interview to USA Today the week of Obama’s inauguration. Then you can imagine the “interest” with which such a Maariv interview with Bibi Netanyahu’s father was met in Israeli circles.
    Noam Sheizaf, who works for Maariv, has translated portions of the interview . . .
    . . . And without further ado, I give you, Ben Zion Netanyahu, the father of the man:

    . . . • Question: You don’t like the Arabs, to say the least.
    • Benzion Netanyahu: “The Bible finds no worse image than this of the man from the desert. And why? Because he has no respect for any law. Because in the desert he can do as he pleases.
    The tendency towards conflict is in the essence of the Arab. He is an enemy by essence. His personality won’t allow him any compromise or agreement. It doesn’t matter what kind of resistance he will meet, what price he will pay. His existence is one of perpetuate war.” . . .
    • Question: Is there any hope of peace?
    • Benzion Netanyahu: …No…The two states solution doesn’t exist. There are no two people here. There is a Jewish people and an Arab population… there is no Palestinian people, so you don’t create a state for an imaginary nation… they only call themselves a people in order to fight the Jews.”
    • Question: So what’s the solution?
    • Benzion Netanyahu: “No solution but force… strong military rule. Any outbreak will bring upon the Arabs enormous suffering. We shouldn’t wait for a big mutiny to start, but rather act immediately with great force to prevent them from going on…
    If it’s possible, we should conquer any disputed territory in the land of Israel. Conquer and hold it, even if it brings us years of war. We should conquer Gaza, and parts of the Galil, and the Golan. This will bring upon us a bloody war. . .” . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to richardsilverstein.com

• When Netanyahu described Iran as Amalek -- read, Hitler-- NYT passed this along as rational thinking
  • DICKERSON3870 May 1, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    RE: "Well, American critics have been telling us this about Netanyahu for years. . . " ~ Weiss

    FOR EXAMPLE, SEE: Bush Had Gog and Magog, Bibi Has Amalek, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 5/25/09
    

    (excerpts) “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers the lifting of the Iranian nuclear threat his life’s mission. Before coming to power, he had mentioned that such an operation might cost thousands of lives, but the price was justified in view of the threat’s severity.” – Aluf Benn, Haaretz

    “My job is first and foremost to ensure the future of the state of Israel … the leadership’s job is to eliminate the danger. Who will eliminate it? It is us or no one.” – Bibi Netanyahu quoted in Haaretz

    Recently, Jacques Chirac confirmed that George Bush, in telephone calls leading up the Iraq war, attempted to persuade France to join the coalition of the willing by invoking the Biblical war of Gog and Magog. . .
    . . . The closest political leader to Bush on today’s political stage is Bibi Netanyahu, as the above Haaretz passages make clear. In addition, there are Bibi’s references to Iran being Amalek, implying Israel’s duty to smite the mullahs a terrible blow lest they first strike Israel in an nuclear attack. . .
    . . . Aluf Benn credits Bibi with firmly held beliefs as does Jeffrey Goldberg (not that Goldberg is my arbiter of truth by any means). So we must at least credit some conviction to Bibi. In doing so, we have to concede that the fervor with which he leads Israel to war against Iran is frightening in the extreme.
    We have the example of George Bush to guide us. He too believed he was on a mission from the Lord to tidy up the Middle East. . .

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to richardsilverstein.com

• 'J Post' says David Remnick is 'conflicted' and 'born of Jewish parents'
  • DICKERSON3870 May 1, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    RE: "In his March 12 piece, Remnick chooses to highlight a recent incident where an Orthodox rabbi reportedly spat upon a young schoolgirl because he considered her attire to be 'insufficiently demure'. . . why does Remnick devote valuable New Yorker real estate to such trivial matters. . . ?" ~ Steve Frank, a Washington attorney

    PERHAPS BECAUSE OF THIS: Israel’s bizarre decision to give up on education – and its future, by Ami Kaufman, +972 Magazine, 12/03/11
    

    (excerpts) Last week I came across a disturbing story, one of many recently, where Haredi school boys threw stones at secular Jewish school girls. [Because] The schoolgirls were singing. . .
    . . . what bothered me more about this particular incident was the age of the perpetrators. These were young boys or teenagers, already well versed on the issues of female singing and its dangers.
    What this incident shows more than anything else, is the education factor and how it will change this country. And it shows how incidents like the one above are going to happen again, and again and again.
    Much has been said on the demographics of the Haredi community and the pace at which it grows. But not many know of how huge an impact Haredi education already has on this state.
    These Haredi rock-throwing boys learn in a Haredi school. That’s because there are four sectors to the Israeli education system: State, State-Religious, Arab, and ultra-Orthodox (Haredi). The major problem with this is that the level of study in the Arab and Haredi schools is much lower than in the state schools. And what makes the problem even worse, is that the level in the state schools themselves has never been lower. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to 972mag.com

  • DICKERSON3870 May 1, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    RE: "Why Remnick chooses singularly to obsess about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. . ." ~ Steve Frank, a Washington attorney

    MY COMMENT: Might it be for the same reason that Mr. Frank seems to "obsess about the Israel-Palestinian conflict"; namely, because Remnick is Jewish? Isn't concern for Israel (as opposed to gays in Saudi Arabia and Yemen) drilled into the consciousness of most American Jews beginning at a very young age?

• Ending Israel’s occupation is the only way to truly invest in Palestine
  • DICKERSON3870 May 1, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    RE: "The only conceivable purpose for this gross violation of my bodily integrity was to humiliate and terrify me. But it had just the opposite effect. . ." ~ Hedy Epstein

    MY COMMENT: Fortunately, Israel's authoritarian tactics do not work on people like Hedy Epstein, Uri Avnery, Gideon Levy, etc. Unfortunately, over time, they do work on most people.

    FROM WIKIPEDIA [Learned helplessness]:
    

    (excerpt) Learned helplessness, as a technical term in animal psychology and related human psychology, means a condition of a human person or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.[1] Organisms which have been ineffective and less sensitive in determining the consequences of their behavior are defined as having acquired learned helplessness.[2] . . .

    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Romney beats Obama-- to the eulogy anyway
  • DICKERSON3870 April 30, 2012 at 5:23 pm with 4 replies

    RE: "I extend my sincere condolences to the family of Benzion Netanyahu... This is a loss for all of Israel and for all who care about Israel." ~ Mitt Romney

    SEE - Bibi’s Father’s Answer to the ‘Arab Problem': Hang’ Em in the Town Square, By Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 4/04/09
    

    (excerpts) Imagine, if you will, if Barack Obama’s real father was Rev. Jeremiah Wright and imagine, if you will, that Wright gave an eight-page interview to USA Today the week of Obama’s inauguration. Then you can imagine the “interest” with which such a Maariv interview with Bibi Netanyahu’s father was met in Israeli circles.
    Noam Sheizaf, who works for Maariv, has translated portions of the interview . . .
    . . . And without further ado, I give you, Ben Zion Netanyahu, the father of the man:
    • Netanyahu: “I don’t see any signs that the Arabs want peace… we will face fierce attacks from the Arabs, and we must react firmly…We just handed them a strong blow in Gaza, and they still bargain with us over one hostage… if we gave them a blow that would really hurt them, they would have given us Gilad Shalit back.”
    • Q: Operation “cast Lead” was one of the worst blows we handed on a civilian population.
    • A: “That’s not enough. It’s possible that we should have hit harder.”
    • Q: You don’t like the Arabs, to say the least.
    • A: “The Bible finds no worse image than this of the man from the desert. And why? Because he has no respect for any law. Because in the desert he can do as he pleases.
    The tendency towards conflict is in the essence of the Arab. He is an enemy by essence. His personality won’t allow him any compromise or agreement. It doesn’t matter what kind of resistance he will meet, what price he will pay. His existence is one of perpetuate war.” . . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to richardsilverstein.com

• Tail has stopped wagging, so dog can stop talking about war with Iran
  • DICKERSON3870 April 30, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    RE: "...while quoting General 'Buck' Turgidson from Dr Strangelove to each other: 'I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.' " ~ Chemi Shalev

    MY COMMENT: You've just got to love that über-turgid General 'Buck' Turgidson!
    

    Miss Scott: "It's 3 o'clock in the morning!"
    General "Buck" Turgidson: "Weh-heh-heh-ll, the Air Force never sleeps."
    Miss Scott: "Buck, honey, I'm not sleepy either..."
    General "Buck" Turgidson: "I know how it is, baby. Tell you what you do: you just start your countdown, and old Bucky'll be back here before you can say 'Blast off!' "

    SOURCE - link to imdb.com

    P.S. "Think of the closing scene of 'Dr. Strangelove'. That's Israel sitting astride the speeding nuclear missile waving the cowboy hat." ~ William Blum, Counterpunch, 8/6/10
    SOURCE - link to counterpunch.org

• How Zionists implanted their dream in Einstein
  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 3:27 am

    RE: "Heimat and Heimatland are German, not Nazi terms. The Nazis spoke German." ~ Antidote

    REPLY: It is my understanding that Hess and Hitler took the "homeland" (heimatland) idea* directly/specifically from the Zionists. I believe Thom Hartmann refers to this in the audio clip from his radio program (which no longer appears to be available).

    * As Hess explains it (at about 3:05 in the video clip), Hitler was creating a homeland for all the ethnic Germans of the world wherever they might have happened to live (not just those residing within the borders of Germany). They modeled this after the Zionist idea of Israel being the "homeland" of all the Jews of the world wherever they might happen to live (not just those residing within the borders of Israel).

  • DICKERSON3870 May 7, 2012 at 3:12 am

    RE: “The Nazi rallying call, 'Sieg Heil!' was inspired by American football cheerleading techniques" ~ Antidote

    REPLY: And frankly, I would just as soon not hear any of it!

    P.S. Many of Goebbels propaganda techniques were apparently based on Edward Louis Bernays' public relations techniques, but it is hardly fair to blame Bernays for the use to which the National Socialist's adapted some of his (and Freud's) ideas.

  • DICKERSON3870 April 29, 2012 at 5:15 pm with 4 replies

    P.S. • NOTE: What Does "Homeland" Mean to You?, by Ronald Bailey on July 19, 2007
    

    I was getting my daily dose of NPR this morning when Morning Edition's listener letters segment came on. One comment from Linda Lewis from Branson, Mo., really resonated. She was complaining that when NPR interviewed Homeland Security advisor Frances Townsend about the new National Intelligence Estimate that the interviewer had "bought into" the language of "protecting the homeland."
    Ms. Lewis complained: "I wasn’t alive during World War II, but I associate “the homeland” with Nazi propaganda. It’s fascistic and offensive." She prefers "U.S" or "America."
    For me, too, the word "homeland" conjures a kind of antediluvian primitive nationalism (tribalism) based on blood and soil , not a people united by their devotion to political ideals like liberty and free
    speech.

    SOURCE - link to reason.com

    • AND LISTEN TO: "HOMELAND" IS A NAZI TERM (AUDIO, 37:44)
    The origins of this term are discussed at length in this Paul Craig Roberts interview on the Thom Hartmann show.
    Program contains an audio clip [at about 13:30], taken from a Nazi rally, that is an example of how the term was used (in German).
    LINK - link to a1135.g.akamai.net

    • AND WATCH: Rudolf Hess opening speech (English Subtitles), [VIDEO, 04:00] - link to youtube.com
    In this four minute clip from the film Triumph Of The Will, Hess is speaking at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and introduces the Heimatland (Homeland) concept that he and Hitler had devised during the writing of Mein Kampf while they were in prison together at Landsberg as a consequence of their convictions for involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.
    As Hess explains it (at about 3:05), Hitler is creating a homeland for all the ethnic Germans of the world wherever they might happen to live (not just those residing within the borders of Germany).
    As translated by the subtitles, Hess says (as if speaking to Hitler): "Thanks to your leadership, Germany will be attainable as the homeland. Homeland for all Germans of the world."
    And be certain not to miss Hess' "eroticized passion" for der Fuhrer at the conclusion of the clip.

  • DICKERSON3870 April 29, 2012 at 5:08 pm with 7 replies

    RE: "Successful inception, therefore, is essentially a perfected form of brainwashing and propaganda. It forces someone to be fed an idea that they would not have otherwise generated..." ~ Nima Shirazi

    MY COMMENT: I am reminded of "Homeland Security"!

    SEE: "10 things you might not know about security measures", By Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer, Chicago Tribune, 4/08/12
    

    (excerpt)
    1. Before the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, hardly any American used the word "homeland." Yet President George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security, upsetting writers such as Peggy Noonan, who thought it sounded too Teutonic: "It summons images of men in spiked helmets lobbing pitchers of beer at outsiders during Oktoberfest." She and others unsuccessfully* suggested Heartland Security, Homefront Security and Mainland Defense. . .

    * To elaborate, the neocons in Cheney's office and at the Pentagon succeeded in having it named "Homeland Security". Why were they so determined to introduce the concept of the "homeland" into the American vernacular? Where else in the world had the "homeland" concept been used (besides Nazi Germany)? What were the neocons trying to associate (perhaps via "transference" and/or similar techniques) the U.S. with in the minds (at least subconsciously) of Americans and perhaps other "Westerners"?

• 'When Netanyahu and I look up we see nothing but the sky' -- Deputy Messiah Barak
  • DICKERSON3870 April 29, 2012 at 4:45 pm

    RE: "At the end of the day, when the military command looks up, it sees us — the minister of defense and the prime minister. When we look up, we see nothing but the sky above us." - Ehud Barak

    BOB DYLAN (1984):
    

    ". . . But what's going on today isn't gonna last, you know? The battle of Armageddon is specifically spelled out: where it will be fought, and if you wanna get technical, when it will be fought. And the battle of the Armageddon definitely will be fought in the Middle East. . ."

    SOURCE - link to bobdylantalks.blogspot.com

• 'Messianic' rap on Netanyahu frees Obama, thaws discourse (and exposes 'No Return' Goldberg)
  • DICKERSON3870 April 29, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    RE: This paragraph [about Israeli racism] has since been removed from the Times story. Huh... What up? ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Perhaps pressure was "brought to bear" upon the New York Times, and the "the Old Gray Lady" relented. We certainly can't have the NYT airing Israel's dirty laundry in public, now can we?!?!

• Major olive producing village ordered to uproot 1,400 trees by May 1
  • DICKERSON3870 April 28, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    P.S. SPEAKING OF "NATURE PRESERVES", I read somewhere several years ago that some Israelis wanted a very scenic area in northern Israel (somewhere in Galilee, I think) designated as a nature preserve. But they were told by the Olmert government that the area had already been promised to U.S. Christians (fundies like Pat Robertson and/or John Hagee, I presume). This area is apparently where the fundies plan to fight Zog and/or Magog and get Raptured up (after they breed the "perfect red heifer"*, of course). It's confusing, so you might want to consult your local fundies for more details. Suffice it to say that "Pastor" John Hagee has some very big plans!

    * SEE: "Pastor Strangelove", by Sarah Posner, American Prospect, 05/21/06
    

    (excerpts) . . . Besides his million-dollar compensation package, [John] Hagee has a portfolio of other ventures, including a cattle ranch in south Texas that may have religious significance. Many evangelicals believe that the arrival of a "perfect red heifer" will signal the end times. In the Old Testament, burning a red heifer and sprinkling its ashes is described as a purification ritual for priests entering the temple. Ultra-orthodox Jews believe that the birth of a modern perfect red heifer will herald the arrival of the messiah, leading to a confrontation with Muslims over the Temple Mount, where Jews believe the Temple will be rebuilt. Some evangelicals likewise regard the red heifer as a harbinger of the ultimate showdown at the Temple Mount, which they believe will be the site of the Second Coming. And they believe that time is near.
    To many other observers, the advent of the red heifer threatens to provoke a violent struggle for control of the Temple Mount, with worldwide repercussions. In the late 1990s, a group of unidentified Texas ranchers reportedly bred a perfect red heifer, which generated excitement in evangelical circles until the animal sprouted some black hairs.
    Six years ago, the John C. Hagee Royalty Trust paid more than $5.5 million for a 7,600-acre ranch in Brackettville,
    Texas, where cattle are raised in a venture with the Texas Israel Agricultural Research Foundation, a nonprofit outfit operated by the pastor... Earl [Hagee's lobbyist] said that Hagee wants to share information to improve the production of livestock, particularly cattle, with an Israeli research project, but otherwise claimed to be unsure of the particulars. Dr. Scott Farhart, an obstetrician and trustee of the John C. Hagee Royalty Trust (and an elder at Hagee's church), did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the director of the ranch. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to prospect.org
    ALSO SEE: Is the Red Heifer Here? - link to jesus-is-the-way.com

  • DICKERSON3870 April 28, 2012 at 10:20 pm with 2 replies

    RE: “The justification this time is 'illegal presence in a nature reserve' ”
    ~ Shmuel

    MY REPLY: Yes, the old "nature preserve" trick is one of Israel's many strategies for dispossessing the Palestinians.

    • FROM WIKIPEDIA [Nahal Qana]: . . . As of 2006, the area around Nahal Qana is being considered as a nature reserve, as requested by the Israel nature and parks authority. . .
    SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • National park land-grabs from two East Jerusalem neighborhoods
    Jan 6, 2012 – There is only one case where the Israeli government reversed a decision to re-zone Palestinian land as a nature reserve. - link to mondoweiss.net

    • “Israel declared it a Nature Reserve” Israeli Military Evacuation Orders for the Palestinian Lands in Wadi Qana area in Deir Istiya Village North of Salfit Governorate - link to poica.org

    • Wadi Qelt - Parts of the wadi were declared a nature reserve by Israel and given the name Nahal Prat. - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • Thousands of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley risk forced displacement, says UN body ~ by Adri Nieuwhof, Electronic Intifada, 2/11/12
    

    (excerpt) Sixty thousand Palestinians live under harsh conditions in the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea area - one of the most isolated and restricted areas in occupied Palestine. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has summarized their humanitarian situation in its February 2012 fact sheet.
    The Jordan Valley and Dead Sea area covers about one third of the West Bank. Eighty-seven percent of the land is designated as Area C, where Israeli exercises full control over security, planning and construction. The area is earmarked for the use of the Israeli military or falls under the jurisdiction of the illegal Israeli settlements. An additional 7% is designated as a nature reserve. In total, Palestinians are prohibited from using 94% of their own land. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to electronicintifada.net

    Palestinian herders fined for trespassing West Bank nature preserve ~ By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz, 2/22/12
    

    (excerpt) The Israel Nature and Parks Authority fined three Palestinian brothers in the West Bank because their cows trespassed "in an unmarked area."
    A spokesman at human rights organization Machsom Watch said, "The cruelty of the authorities knows no bounds. This is a by-product of the occupation in the territories."
    Late last year, three Palestinian brothers who own a small herd from which they earn a living received the fine from an inspector visiting the Jordan Valley. Each brother - from the Daraghma family - was required to pay NIS 660.
    The incident occurred in the Um Zuka nature preserve in the West Bank near Route 90 and the Jordan Valley settlement of Mehola. For years, Palestinian shepherds, including those from the Daraghma family, have marched their herds on their lands next to the road. Before the fining incident, no one had interrupted their routine. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to haaretz.com

  • DICKERSON3870 April 28, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    RE: "One wonders, what justification, what authority other than the usual 'barrel of a gun', Israel can have for thus interfering with the economic and traditional lives of these people." ~ pabelmont

    FROM ALISTAIR CROOKE, London Review of Books, 03/03/11:
    

    (excerpts). . . It was [Ariel] Sharon who pioneered the philosophy of ‘maintained uncertainty’ that repeatedly extended and then limited the space in which Palestinians could operate by means of an unpredictable combination of changing and selectively enforced regulations, and the dissection of space by settlements, roads Palestinians were not allowed to use and continually shifting borders. All of this was intended to induce in the Palestinians a sense of permanent temporariness. . .
    . . . It suits Israel to have a ‘state’ without borders so that it can keep negotiating about borders, and count on the resulting uncertainty to maintain acquiescence. . .

    SOURCE - link to lrb.co.uk
    ALSO SEE: Learned helplessness - link to en.wikipedia.org

• Gurvitz on 'Israel’s not-so-stellar record on treatment of Christians'
  • DICKERSON3870 April 27, 2012 at 3:55 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "The Methodists will be voting on a controversial resolution to divest from 3 multinational companies profiting from the Israeli occupation" & "the recent CBS '60 minute' episode on the plight of Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land." ~AR

    ♦ UNITED METHODIST KAIROS RESPONSE ♦
    Endorse the Resolution
    Aligning United Methodist Investments with Resolutions
    on Israel/Palestine
    • Read the resolution here.
    This is a endorsement form for individuals, both United Methodists and all others. We welcome endorsements by everyone who would like to support this action for justice and peace in the Holy Land.
    • ENDORSE THE RESOLUTION HERE.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    ♦ Thank CBS for Telling the Story of Palestinian Christians! ♦
    CBS reporter Bob Simon highlighted the story of Palestinian Christians on the April 22nd episode of 60 Minutes. Express your appreciation to CBS for telling the often forgotten story of Palestinian Christians by sending them an email (pre-written and editable).
    • TO SEND EMAIL - link to org2.democracyinaction.org

    • ALSO: CLICK HERE to sign JVP’s petition which has already gathered over 7,500 signatures in a few hours. (Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots organization dedicated to promoting equality, democracy and self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.)

• Shades of Birmingham-- Independence Day attacks on African refugees in South Tel Aviv
  • DICKERSON3870 April 27, 2012 at 3:40 pm with 1 replies

    RE: "Shades of Birmingham– Independence Day attacks on African refugees in South Tel Aviv" ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: You're not just whistling Dixie, Phil!

    FOR INSTANCE - WATCH: Israeli teens brandish racism after Palestinian children die, by Ami Kaufman, +972 Magazine, 4/02/12
    Israeli youth today has no fear of saying what it really thinks about Arabs. The youth featured in the video below are not only are they happy when children die, but one girl said she has no problem with taking a weapon and killing innocent Arabs
    

    February 16, 2012. A bus full of kids north of Jerusalem hits a truck and turns over. Kids are burned to death in the fiery crash.
    As the reports start to surface, so does the ugly Israeli. On Facebook, on the news sites. In the street. You can’t miss it. First it starts with an exhale of relief that they aren’t Jewish. Next comes the sorrow that more of
    them weren’t killed.
    “Sure,” you say, “but these don’t represent Israeli society.”
    Well, I beg to differ. I think the teenagers shown in the Channel 10 magazine item below (my translation) are actually quite representative of your average Israeli teenager. Nothing scientific on my part. Not backing it up with data, so you can go ahead and take a jab at me for that. Just backing it up with the daily doses of racism I see every day when I enter my social media, my news sites, my streets, my supermarkets, my clinics, my kids’ ballet classes, my work place. So many places. Those are my sources.
    Sources of disgust.

    VIDEO (14:49) - link to 972mag.com

• Yoffie rallies American Jews to determine 'character of the Jewish state' without a word about our obligations as American citizens
  • DICKERSON3870 April 29, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    P.S. Rudolf Hess opening speech (English Subtitles) [VIDEO, 04:00] - link to youtube.com

  • DICKERSON3870 April 27, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    RE: "Zionism does not see the Jewish state as 'a state of all its citizens'... Israel is not primarily the state of Israelis" ~ Eric Yoffie
    AND RE: "this is a hard sell. what compels someone, say a person brought up in a civil national state (like america), to buy into these concepts?" ~ Annie Robbins

    MY REPLY/COMMENT: There is a precedent.

    • WATCH: Rudolf Hess opening speech (English Subtitles)
    In this four minute clip from the film Triumph Of The Will, Hess is speaking at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and introduces the Heimatland (Homeland) concept that he and Hitler had devised during the writing of Mein Kampf while they were in prison together at Landsberg as a consequence of their convictions for involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.
    As Hess explains it (at about 3:05), Hitler is creating a homeland for all the ethnic Germans of the world wherever they might happen to live (not just those residing within the borders of Germany).
    As translated by the subtitles, Hess says (speaking to Hitler): "Thanks to your leadership, Germany will be attainable as the homeland. Homeland for all Germans of the world."
    And be certain not to miss Hess' "eroticized passion" for der Fuhrer at the conclusion of the clip.

    • AND LISTEN TO: "HOMELAND" IS A NAZI TERM (AUDIO, 37:44)
    The origins of this term are discussed at length in this Paul Craig Roberts interview on the Thom Hartmann show.
    Program contains an audio clip [at about 13:30], taken from a Nazi rally, that is an example of how the term was used (in German).
    LINK - link to a1135.g.akamai.net

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