Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 6118 (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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  • US Middle East policy is politicized in two congressional races
    • DICKERSON3870 June 12, 2012 at 4:24 pm

      RE: "I was reminded of the Warsaw Ghetto when I went to Gaza, and the Holocaust plainly has affected the Israeli mindset: many critics, and I'm one, believe that Israel has modeled the behavior of the abuser." ~ Weiss

      FOR INSTANCE, SEE: "Avraham Burg: Israel's new prophet" ~ By Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 1 November 2008
      Avraham Burg was a pillar of the Israeli establishment but his new book is causing a sensation. It argues that Israel is an "abused child" which has become a "violent parent". And his solutions are radical, as he explains to Donald Macintyre.

      (excerpts). . .But his book "The Holocaust is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes" – published this week in Britain – caused a much bigger sensation when it came out last year in Israel, at once becoming a best-seller and provoking a furious reaction not only from the right but from many of Burg's former colleagues on the political centre-left. In the book – a compelling mix of polemic, personal memoir, homage to his parents and meditation on Judaism – Burg argues that Israel has been too long imprisoned by its obsessive and cheapening use – or abuse – of the Holocaust as "a theological pillar of Jewish identity". He argues that the living role played by the Holocaust – Burg uses the regular Hebrew word Shoah or "catastrophe" for the extermination of six million Jews in the Second World War – in everyday Israeli discourse, has left Israel with a persistent self-image of a "nation of victims", in stark variance with its actual present-day power. Instead, the book argues, Israel needs finally to abandon the "Judaism of the ghetto" for a humanistic, "universal Judaism".
      The implication of Burg's analysis, one that perhaps only an Israeli would have dared promote, is that the fostered memory of the Holocaust hovers destructively over every aspect of Israeli political life – including its relations with the Palestinians since the 1967 Six Day War and the subsequent occupation. "We have pulled the Shoah out of its historical context," he writes, "and turned it into a plea and generator for every deed. All is compared to the Shoah, dwarfed by the Shoah and therefore all is allowed – be it fences , sieges ... curfews, food and water deprivation or unexplained killings. All is permitted because we have been through the Shoah and you will not tell us how to behave."
      For Burg, whose own father Yosef was a German Jew, and for many years leader of Israel's National Religious Party, the "real watershed moment" in this deforming process was the trial and subsequent execution in 1962 of Adolf Eichmann, which Yosef Burg vainly opposed from inside the Cabinet. Instead of Eichmann's death symbolising, as it was meant to do, "the end of the Shoah and the beginning of the post-Shoah period," he says, in reality "the opposite happened... The Shoah discourse had begun." . . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to informationclearinghouse.info

  • Should we call it apartheid?
    • DICKERSON3870 June 11, 2012 at 10:37 pm

      RE: "Recently, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) recommended resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by creating a single state in which Palestinians would have 'limited voting power' (imagine how he would react if anyone suggested his own ethnic group be denied full voting rights)." ~ Omar Baddar

      FROM WIKIPEDIA [Three-Fifths Compromise]:

      (excerpt) The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise between Southern and Northern states reached during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the enumerated population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. . .

      SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

  • Palestinian footballer fighting for his life is not a story, but Netanyahu's football injury is
    • DICKERSON3870 June 11, 2012 at 10:17 pm

      RE: "...my favorite example is when in 2009 IDF rescinded the ban on exporting humus to Gaza, with exception of “flavored varieties like with pine nuts or mushroom”. What frame of mind could produce such feat of bureaucratic thinking?" ~ piotr

      MY COMMENT: There is a method* to the (bureaucratic) madness!

      * 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

  • Jane Harman, media mogul
    • DICKERSON3870 June 11, 2012 at 12:49 pm with 2 replies

      RE: "I didn't know that Haim Saban was a media mogul
      either!" ~ Weiss

      FROM WIKIPEDIA [Haim Saban]: Haim Saban (Hebrew: חיים סבן‎) (born 15 October 1944) is an Egyptian born Israeli-American television and media proprietor.[2] With an estimated current net worth of $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 104th richest person in America.[1] . . .

      . . . Media career

      • Saban Entertainment
      In the United States, he became a television producer, founding Saban Entertainment in 1988.[12] During that time, Haim Saban and partner Shuki Levy became known for soundtrack compositions for children's television programs of the 1980s. Although Levy and Saban composed for their own properties (such as Kidd Video and Maple Town), they scored for other production companies as well (such as Inspector Gadget, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, M.A.S.K., Dinosaucers, Dragon Quest, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors). In 1998, The Hollywood Reporter reported that he did not actually compose all the music (totalling 3,700 works in 2008) he is credited for; ten composers threatened to sue and Saban settled out of court.[13]
      In the 1990s, Saban's company became best known for the production of Power Rangers, Masked Rider, VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetleborgs, which were Western adaptations of Japanese tokusatsu shows.
      • ABC Family
      On July 23, 2001, Saban announced that he and News Corporation would sell Fox Family Worldwide Inc for $5.3 billion to The Walt Disney Company.[14] and on October 24, 2001, the sale was completed[12] and the network was renamed ABC Family.[5] Saban profited about $1.6 billion from this sale.[5]
      • ProSiebenSat.1
      In August 2003, Saban led a consortium, which acquired a controling stake in the straggling ProSiebenSat.1 Media group from the Kirch Media Group, the then-bankrupt German media conglomerate.[15]
      ProSiebenSat.1, is Germany's largest commercial television broadcasting company, which owns five German TV channels, including ProSieben and SAT.1, two of the top three stations in Germany. Collectively, ProSiebenSat.1's channels represented approximately 45% of the German TV advertising market at the time. Saban's ProSiebenSat.1 acquisition was the first time a foreigner took control of a significant German Media company.[5]
      Saban oversaw a successful business turnaround of ProSiebenSat.1, recruiting former business rivals, ex-BSkyB chief executive Tony Ball and former BBC Director General Greg Dyke to the board of the company.[16]
      In March 2007, Saban Capital Group and the consortium sold its controlling interest in ProSiebenSat.1 to KKR and Permira, for 22.40 euros a share after originally paying 7.5 euros per share in 2003.[17]
      • Univision
      On June 27, 2006, Saban Capital Group led a group of investors bidding for Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language media company in the United States.[18][19] Other investors in the Saban-led group were Texas Pacific Group of Fort Worth, Texas and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The group was successful in acquiring Univision with a bid valued at $13.7 billion (USD).[18][20] . . . SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

  • NJ Republican candidate for Congress spent election day in Israel, meeting with Netanyahu
    • DICKERSON3870 June 10, 2012 at 7:21 pm

      P.P.S. ENTIRE "TIME WILL CRAWL" LYRICS - link to songmeanings.net

      P.P.P.S. I recently came across Bowie's Time Will Crawl in the fascinating 1991 film The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants de Pont Neuf).

      The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants de Pont Neuf)1991, R, 126 minutes
      Directed by Leos Carax, this cult hit stars Denis Lavant as Alex, a homeless, fire-eating addict living on the Pont Neuf, an abandoned bridge in Paris that's under renovation for the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution. When Alex meets Michele (Juliette Binoche), a starving artist who's losing her only asset -- her vision -- these two lost souls come together to become whole again in a most unexpected way.
      Language: French (English subtitles)
      Netflix availability: Streaming and DVD
      Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
      IMdB - link to imdb.com
      Les Amants du Pont-Neuf Trailer - Juliette Binoche 1991 (VIDEO, 01:33) - link to youtube.com

    • DICKERSON3870 June 10, 2012 at 6:50 pm

      P.S. FROM WIKIPEDIA [Time Will Crawl]:

      (excerpt) "Time Will Crawl" is the second track on David Bowie's album 'Never Let Me Down' and was issued as the second single from the album.
      The lyric is themed around the pollution and destruction of the planet by industry (Bowie has cited hearing of the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 as the genesis of the lyric), and is often praised by critics for its restrained production compared to Bowie’s other work of the era. Interviewed in 1987 and asked about the lyrical content of "Time Will Crawl," Bowie said it "deals with the idea that someone in one's own community could be the one responsible for blowing up the world."[1] Bowie also stated at the time that it was his favorite song from the album,[2] and later put the song on his list of all-time favorites.[3]
      In 2008, David Bowie released a newly-recorded version of the song (the "MM Remix") on his iSelect album. . .

      SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • DICKERSON3870 June 10, 2012 at 6:38 pm with 2 replies

      RE: "The Left have decimated family. Examples of this is telling kids they know 'stuff' that their parents don’t..." ~ giladg

      A LATE SPRING EVENING'S MUSICAL 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!™

      "...I saw a black black stream
      Full of white eyed fish
      And a drowning man
      With no eyes at all
      I felt a warm warm breeze
      That melted metal and steel
      I got a bad migraine
      That lasted three long years
      And the pills that I took
      Made my fingers disappear

      Time will crawl, time will crawl
      Time will crawl
      'Til the 21st century lose. . ." ~ David Bowie, 1987

      • David Bowie: Time Will Crawl (2008 MM Mix) [VIDEO, 04:55] - link to youtube.com

      • David Bowie: Time Will Crawl [VIDEO, 04:08] - link to youtube.com

  • Congressman poses with Israeli missile man-- people turn the congressman out of office
    • DICKERSON3870 June 10, 2012 at 7:30 pm

      P.S. TWO NICE DOCUMENTARIES THAT WILL SOON BE DELETED FROM NETFLIX STREAMING:
      • Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (2006) - link to movies.netflix.com
      • It Came from Kuchar (2009) - link to movies.netflix.com

    • DICKERSON3870 June 10, 2012 at 4:12 pm with 1 replies

      RE: "did you see the Jets and Giants football helmets on the
      credenzas?!" ~ Weiss

      MY COMMENT: I hate to be a stickler for accuracy, and I certainly would not want to make a "federal case" out of this, but there appears to be a couch (black leather or Naugahyde®) behind the men with an "end table" at each end of said couch.

      FROM MERRIAM-WEBSTER:

      Definition of CREDENZA
      1: credence
      2: a sideboard, buffet, or bookcase patterned after a Renaissance credence; especially : one without legs

      Definition of CREDENCE
      3: [Middle French, from Old Italian credenza] : a Renaissance sideboard used chiefly for valuable plate
      4: a small table where the bread and wine rest before consecration

      GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH FOR "CREDENZA" - link to google.com...0.0.KSTOMMjdH7o&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=d1f7b123b3278d28&biw=2441&bih=1345

  • Brave 'NYT' exposes depth of Obama ties to the a lobby
    • DICKERSON3870 June 9, 2012 at 6:13 pm

      RE: "Brave ‘NYT’ exposes depth of Obama ties to a lobby"

      SEE: Broken Shards of My Heart: The US in Decline, by David Michael Green, Common Dreams, 6/09/12

      (excerpts) . . . This country is dying, let’s be clear. It may live yet. It may survive for decades in slow decline. It may find a way in utter crisis to throw off, before it is too late, the fat slimy boa which is squeezing every last cent of value out of it. Its political class may invent a devastating foreign crisis with massively grim consequences in order to deflect public attention from its manifest failings. Maybe it will even be some combination of all of the above.
      Who knows? What we can be sure of, however, is that what was once a great and promising idea as much as a nation is now decrepit to the core, and rapidly rotting away, and that these wounds are entirely self-inflicted. That, for me, is the kicker. The Soviets didn’t invade and take us over. We didn’t succumb to some raging virus like the Black Plague. A meteor didn’t blast a hole in the middle of North America. . .
      . . .It will get far worse before it gets better, if it does. The Wisconsin election was widely and correctly seen as a dry run for November, but in fact November is already as over as is May or April. The hapless Obama people may not have gotten the word, but they are as dead as the unions in Wisconsin that they didn’t bother to support. And Obama will go down in near-term, right-wing renderings of history as another Jimmy Carter. Meanwhile, stupid liberals, who slavishly admired a decidedly right-wing, militarist, ultra-statist, corporate-serving Democratic president, will sit holding their heads in surprise at the damage wrought to the president himself, to his party, and to their cherished liberal principles. Um, sorry, but have y’all been snoozing through Afghanistan and Pakistan? Did you miss the whole presidential-ordered assassinations program? Have you not heard what has happened to whistleblowers? Did you forget the tax cuts and the offer to dismantle Medicare? Have you been watching Fox and not heard about the growth of military spending? Did you not know that the health care bill was co-authored by, and for the benefit of, insurance and pharmaceutical companies? . . .
      . . . This country’s future looks grim in so many ways. You can just feel the doors and windows shutting, one by one. Are we really so far off, given the displays we’ve already seen, from being a corporate-owned polity, in which oceans of Citizens United sponsored propaganda limits the cognitive landscape of an entire country, sham elections and a steady stream of brain-numbing high-def television gruel satisfies most of the (obese) public enough to keep them stuck on their sofas, while a massive police state armed with domestic drone aircraft and angry cops deal swiftly with the few remaining malcontents stupid enough to demand a return to the better country we once knew? You know, more or less a carbon copy of Putin’s Russia, here in North America. . .

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to commondreams.org

  • Israel's reliance on US has turned it into a 'global pariah'
    • DICKERSON3870 June 6, 2012 at 11:31 pm with 1 replies

      RE: "The US will also work to ensure that Europe, which is the main trading partner for most Israeli industries, does nothing more than cluck its tongue." ~ Plitnick

      FOR INSTANCE, SEE: US Rejected 2005 Iranian Offer Ensuring No Nuclear Weapons, by Gareth Porter, Antiwar.com, 6/06/12

      (excerpt) France and Germany were prepared in spring 2005 to negotiate on an Iranian proposal to convert all of Iran’s enriched uranium to fuel rods, making it impossible to use it for nuclear weapons, but Britain vetoed the deal at the insistence of the United States, according to a new account by a former top Iranian nuclear negotiator. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to original.antiwar.com

  • If '5 Broken Cameras' wins an Oscar-- then will you end the occupation?
    • DICKERSON3870 June 5, 2012 at 4:57 pm with 2 replies

      RE: "Jewish Voice for Peace is promoting the film: '5 Broken Cameras ... is getting rave reviews from activists and critics alike'." ~ Weiss

      NETFLIX: 5 Broken Cameras (2011) NR
      In this moving documentary, a Palestinian farmer chronicles his village's nonviolent resistance to the presence of encroaching Israeli settlers and military. As camera after camera gets shot or otherwise destroyed, the farmer continues filming.
      Netflix availability: DVD availability date unknown
      TO SAVE TO YOUR NETFLIX QUEUE - link to movies.netflix.com

  • Story of forced searches of travelers' emails goes viral
  • German submarines for Israel outfitted with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles
    • DICKERSON3870 June 4, 2012 at 11:33 pm

      THE MUCH LONGER ARTICLE (ORIGINALLY IN GERMAN) HAS BEEN TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH AND IS NOW AT SPIEGEL ONLINE.
      • LINK - link to spiegel.de

    • DICKERSON3870 June 4, 2012 at 4:44 pm

      RE: “Germany is helping Israel to develop its military nuclear capabilities…” – Speigel

      MY COMMENT: Yet another example of "Gunter the Terrible"!

      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

      * I would add that Christian Zionism is also an "extreme kind of pro-Semitism" that is actually "disguised anti-Semitism".

    • DICKERSON3870 June 4, 2012 at 4:36 pm

      RE: "Germany is helping Israel to develop its military nuclear capabilities..." - Speigel

      MY COMMENT: Note that Germany is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and it has knowingly assisted the nuclear weapons program (as to delivery/launching of nuclear-armed missiles) of a country that has not signed the NPT! Obviously the NPT is worthless.

  • Netanyahu vets possible Romney VP
    • DICKERSON3870 June 4, 2012 at 5:26 pm

      RE: "Netanyahu vets possible Romney VP"

      MY COMMENT: Apparently Netanyhu has eliminated the middleman (AIPAC) - at least as to the GOP.

      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

  • LGBT activists protest NYC 'Celebrate Israel' parade
    • DICKERSON3870 June 4, 2012 at 5:11 pm

      And most of the 135 were probably Log Cabin Republicans (self-hating gays with low self-esteem)!

    • DICKERSON3870 June 4, 2012 at 5:00 pm

      RE: "The [LBGT] community center ejected and banned groups meeting in support of Palestinian LGBT organizations last year, at the demand of pro-Israel individuals." ~ NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid! press release

      SEE: : Nakba porn kingpin Michael Lucas bullies LGBT center against Anti-Apartheid Party, by Max Blumental, Mondoweiss, 2/24/11

      (excerpt) Wealthy gay porn producer Michael Lucas has successfully pressured New York City’s LGBT Center to renege on its agreement to host a “Party to End Apartheid” on Israeli Apartheid Week. Lucas threatened to boycott the center and pressure its donors to pull their money out. He called the event an “anti-Semitic” affair held by a “hate group.” It seems that money talks, because I doubt that a progressive institution like the LGBT Center would have otherwise responded to an open bigot like Lucas who has used ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages as sets for sex scenes.
      Lucas, who leads gay tours to Israel to promote the country’s supposedly tolerant gay culture, has celebrated fellow porn producer Charles Merrill’s public burning of a Qu’ran, calling it an act of “artistic bravery.” Last year, he joined the Islamophobic bandwagon in calling the Cordoba Initiative’s plan to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero part of a covert plot to install Shariah law in the United States — he described the proposed center as a “monument to Muslim terrorism.” A laundry list of racist statements by Lucas would be so long it is impossible to compile (for more, see here); it is enough to note that his political views are defined by crude resentment of Muslims, the fetishization of an Israel that does not exist, and little else.
      What is more remarkable about Lucas is the way in which he has fused extreme Zionism with homoeroticism in his films. His most widely promoted film, “Men of Israel,” contains a sex scene inside a Palestinian village that was ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias in 1947-48. Lucas describes the scene here (NSFW), deceptively stating that the village was “deserted centuries ago”:
      …we went to an abandoned village just north of Jerusalem. It was a beautiful ancient township that had been deserted centuries ago…however, that did not stop our guys from mounting each other and trying to repopulate it. Biology may not be the lesson of the day but these men shot their seeds all over the village. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to mondoweiss.net

      P.S. PETITION: “Save New York’s LGBT Center! Don’t Let Wealthy Bigots Shut Down Free Speech ”
      TO READ/SIGN THE PETITION - link to ipetitions.com

  • Obama's kosher cowboys
    • DICKERSON3870 June 2, 2012 at 3:23 pm

      P.S. U.S./ISRAEL: A Light Blight Unto the Nations!™

    • DICKERSON3870 June 2, 2012 at 3:06 pm with 1 replies

      RE: "...David Sanger reports on the ongoing joint US/Israeli effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities including centrifuges producing enriched uranium... The Stuxnet virus is believed to be the first computer program that damaged physical infrastructure. " ~ Ira Glunts

      FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/29/12:

      (excerpt)…"U.S. officials draw a distinction between cyber espionage and cyberattacks, which have a destructive or manipulative purpose and could be considered an act of war. . ."

      SOURCE - link to online.wsj.com

  • Another op-ed headline you won't be reading any time soon in the US press
  • The audacity of our ancestors
    • DICKERSON3870 June 1, 2012 at 2:39 am

      RE: "The irony of our panel being censored while one of the panelists was to be discussing life under the Red Scare era did not go unnoticed." ~ Rae Abileah

      HIS EXCELLENCY DANFORTH in "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller:

      "A person is either with this court or against it. There be no road in between. This is a new time; a precise time. We live no longer in the dusky afternoon (pause) when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God's grace, the good folk and the evil are entirely separate."

      FILM: The Crucible, 1996, PG-13, 123 minutes
      Playwright Arthur Miller's parable of the 1950s anti-communist crusade (thinly veiled here as the Salem, Mass., witch trials of 1692) receives lush treatment in this Oscar-nominated film adaptation from director Nicholas Hytner. After being spurned by her married lover (Daniel Day-Lewis), young Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) stirs up a frenzy of hysteria and fear with accusations of witchcraft. Joan Allen earned an Oscar nod for her role.
      Netflix availability: Streaming and DVD
      Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
      The Crucible Trailer (VIDEO, 01:19) - link to youtube.com

    • DICKERSON3870 June 1, 2012 at 2:13 am

      P.S. RE: "The sight of these hundreds of parliamentarians [The Congress] jumping up and clapping their hands, again and again and again and again, with the Leader [Netanyahu] graciously acknowledging with a movement of his hand, was reminiscent of other regimes." ~ Uri Avnery

      SEE:

      • MUSSOLINI SPEECH TARANTO (VIDEO, 03:28) - link to youtube.com

      • MUSSOLINI SPEECH BOLZANO 1935 (VIDEO, 04:38) - link to youtube.com

      • (English Subtitles) Mussolini's speech against France, Rome 1939 [VIDEO, 04:37] - link to youtube.com

      • MUSSOLINI SPEECH ROMA 1940/1941 (VIDEO, 08:30) - link to youtube.com

      • Mussolini's speech (English Subtitles), declaration of war on Great Britain and France [VIDEO, 07:53] - link to youtube.com

    • DICKERSON3870 June 1, 2012 at 2:05 am with 2 replies

      RE: "One year ago...on May 24, 2011, I was in the Capital gallery witnessing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress. Feeling the need to speak up for human rights in that key moment, I stood up and stated loudly, 'Equal rights for Palestinians' and was subsequently assaulted by a member of the audience." ~ Rae Abileah

      FROM URI AVNERY: "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

  • '5 Broken Cameras' is reminiscent of 'The Battle of Algiers' (but the 'NYT' can't tell you that)
    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 12:39 pm

      RE: "‘5 Broken Cameras’ is reminiscent of ‘The Battle of Algiers’ (but the ‘NYT’ can’t tell you that)" ~ Abdeen Jabara

      NETFLIX: 5 Broken Cameras (2011) NR
      In this moving documentary, a Palestinian farmer chronicles his village's nonviolent resistance to the presence of encroaching Israeli settlers and military. As camera after camera gets shot or otherwise destroyed, the farmer continues filming.
      Netflix availability: DVD availability date unknown
      TO SAVE TO YOUR NETFLIX QUEUE - link to movies.netflix.com

      P.S. MUSIC: Mark Eliyahu playing the Kamancha (kamancheh) with the Ashkelon Andalusian Orchestra: "Brothers Getting Together" (VIDEO, 06:34) - link to youtube.com
      H/T: Paul Woodward @ War in Context – link to warincontext.org

  • Why was political adviser Axelrod present when Obama and security aides picked 'kill list'?
    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 1:05 pm

      RE: "look at this spooky little interchange on Morning Joe--all the liberals approving of Obama's kill list, and praising his deeply moving assumption of "moral responsibility" for the drone strikes (with no oversight, no positive and public rules, hence no chance for any but symbolic responsibility)" ~ Weiss

      SEE: How extremism is normalized, by Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 5/30/12

      (excerpts) There is one important passage from yesterday’s big New York Times article on President Obama’s personal issuance of secret, due-process-free death sentences that I failed to highlight... :
      That record, and Mr. Awlaki’s calls for more attacks, presented Mr. Obama with an urgent question: Could he order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial?
      The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.
      Mr. Obama gave his approval, and Mr. Awlaki was killed. . .

      Please just re-read that bolded part. This is something that we already knew. The New York Times‘ Charlie Savage had previously reported that Obama OLC lawyers David Barron and Marty Lederman had authored a “secret document” that ”provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war” (“The memo concluded that what was reasonable, and the process that was due, was different for Mr. Awlaki than for an ordinary criminal”). Attorney General Eric Holder then publicly claimed: “‘Due process’ and ‘judicial process’ are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.” Both of those episodes sparked controversy, because of how radical of a claim it is. . .
      . . .But that’s the point: once something is repeated enough by government officials, we become numb to its extremism. Even in the immediate wake of 9/11 — when national fear and hysteria were intense — things like the Patriot Act, military commissions, and indefinite detention were viewed as radical departures from American political tradition; now, they just endure and are constantly renewed without notice, because they’ve just become normalized fixtures of American political life. Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I’ve heard in my lifetime . . . and it’s now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it. . .

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to salon.com

  • Israeli 'peace camp' reconvenes to receive free Madonna tix; Israeli anti-occupation activists say no
    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 11:21 am

      RE: "Haaretz reports the singer 'has donated 600 tickets to her show on Thursday in Tel Aviv to members of the Israeli and Palestinian peace camps...' " ~ A. Horowitz

      MY COMMENT: What a cheapskate! That's chicken feed for a bigtime* material girl like Madonna.

      * Peter Gabriel: Big Time (VIDEO, 04:36) - link to youtube.com

      TWO ITEMS FROM MY EXTENSIVE MADONNA ARCHIVES
      • EXCERPT (01/10/08) :

      It’s just been announced that Madonna spends 120,000 dollars a year on….WATER!!!! Please reread that sentence for the full effect. Yes mam, The Queen Of Pop (not the drink, the music) spends almost 10,000 dollars a month on special Kabbalah-blessed water for her and her clan. And what’s the price tag on this special “holy” water? 5 dollars for each small bottle.

      SOURCE – link to ecorazzi.com

      • EXCERPT (10/29/08):

      Madonna’s plan to ensure all of her children get an express ticket to Jewish-lite heaven was to fill her indoor home swimming pool with Kabbalah water.
      This would have gone nicely with the bench press she found near the Dome of the Rock, the pull-up bar she bought at a Southern Baptist community auction, and the sauna she made from the inside-out skulls of over a dozen Lucifarians.
      The Kabbalah water in the pool – well that’s actually true. She was gonna stand there with millions of imported plastic bottles and dump each individual one into the deep end until it was at least semi-swimmable.
      Not any more though. Now she’s just getting divorced – and Guy Ritchie has decided that whatever pours out of his green garden hose is probably good enough. That’s why he just canceled her weird, massive water order. . .

      SOURCE – link to hecklerspray.com

      P.S. MORE MUSIC: Mark Eliyahu playing the Kamancha (kamancheh) with the Ashkelon Andalusian Orchestra: "Brothers Getting Together" (VIDEO, 06:34) - link to youtube.com
      H/T: Paul Woodward @ War in Context – link to warincontext.org

  • Twitter-assisted suicide
    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 12:14 pm

      REGARDING DHARUN RAVI (from ABC News, 5/21/12):

      (excerpts) Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge today for spying on his roommate's gay tryst. Ravi's freshman roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days later. . .
      . . . Ravi, 20, must report to Middlesex Adult Correctional Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. for his 30 day jail term. He was also sentenced to three years probation, ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and attend counseling programs for cyber-bullying and alternative lifestyles. . .

      SOURCE - link to abcnews.go.com

      I REMEMBER SEEING THIS ON 'COURT TV' NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO: Man Sentenced in Killing Of Suspected Kidnapper, Associated Press, 8/28/85

      BATON ROUGE, La., Aug. 27— A father who fatally shot a man suspected of kidnapping and sexually assaulting his son was given a suspended prison term today and sentenced to five years of probation.
      The man, Leon Gary Plauche, 39 years old, had pleaded no contest to manslaughter in the death of Jeffrey Doucet, 25, who was shot in the head in the Baton Rouge airport in March 1984.
      The shooting occurred as deputies were returning Mr. Doucet in handcuffs from California, where he had been arrested on a charge of kidnapping Mr. Plauche's 11-year-old son.
      Judge Frank Saia of State District Court sentenced Mr. Plauche to undergo treatment for substance abuse and perform 300 hours of community service work.

      SOURCE - link to nytimes.com

      • VIDEO (01:33): Father of Kidnapped Son gets Revenge - link to youtube.com

  • Controversy over Jerusalem 'Museum of Tolerance' featured in the 'Daily Beast'
    • DICKERSON3870 May 30, 2012 at 6:50 pm

      RE: "The heated dispute over the building of a “Museum of Tolerance” by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) on top of a historic Muslim cemetery shows no signs of letting up." ~ Alex Kane

      MY COMMENT: Israel often uses U.S. entities (like SWC), corporations (like Intel), etc. in an effort to legitimize its actions.

      FOR INSTANCE, 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

  • Senate legislation on Palestinian refugees does not put 'US interests first,' Sen. Leahy says
    • DICKERSON3870 May 30, 2012 at 5:45 pm

      RE: "Zionists themselves have used the term Israel firster when it suited their meaning." ~ Weiss

      MY COMMENT: In reality, they really only seem to have a problem with "Israel firster" when it is used regarding someone who is Jewish (or a group like AIPAC that is commonly seen as being a Jewish group). They don't seem to care so much if "Israel firster" is used regarding a non-Jew (or a group like John Hagee's Christians United for Israel).

      STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH: "The odious ‘Israel first’ libel", by Alan Dershowitz, N.Y. Daily News, 2/27/12

      (excerpts) It’s the kind of virulent hate speech you’d expect to find on a neo-Nazi website or in a Patrick Buchanan column: American Jews who support current Israeli policies are accused of dual loyalty and called “Israel firsters.” . . .
      . . . This false accusation of disloyalty to country was a central tenet of Nazism, Stalinism and other anti-Semitic regimes. Today, it is the mantra of Jew haters and neo-Nazis.
      So who is spouting this hateful rhetoric today?
      . . . The author of these hateful quotes is MJ Rosenberg. . .
      . . . And Rosenberg has become involved with a vengeance, using as his primary weapon the poisonous charge of “Israel firsters” and dual loyalty.
      Let there be no doubt that Rosenberg’s accusation of dual or singular loyalty to a foreign country is an anti-Semitic canard historically reserved for Jews. . .

      SOURCE - link to articles.nydailynews.com

  • Beyond the pale: NYC Jewish community center cancels workshop on Palestinian nonviolent movements
    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 4:57 pm

      RE: "Beyond the pale: NYC Jewish community center cancels workshop on Palestinian nonviolent movements"

      SPEAKING OF BEING "BEYOND THE PALE": Nakba porn kingpin Michael Lucas bullies LGBT center against Anti-Apartheid Party, by Max Blumental, Mondoweiss, 2/24/11

      (excerpt) Wealthy gay porn producer Michael Lucas has successfully pressured New York City’s LGBT Center to renege on its agreement to host a “Party to End Apartheid” on Israeli Apartheid Week. Lucas threatened to boycott the center and pressure its donors to pull their money out. He called the event an “anti-Semitic” affair held by a “hate group.” It seems that money talks, because I doubt that a progressive institution like the LGBT Center would have otherwise responded to an open bigot like Lucas who has used ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages as sets for sex scenes.
      Lucas, who leads gay tours to Israel to promote the country’s supposedly tolerant gay culture, has celebrated fellow porn producer Charles Merrill’s public burning of a Qu’ran, calling it an act of “artistic bravery.” Last year, he joined the Islamophobic bandwagon in calling the Cordoba Initiative’s plan to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero part of a covert plot to install Shariah law in the United States — he described the proposed center as a “monument to Muslim terrorism.” A laundry list of racist statements by Lucas would be so long it is impossible to compile (for more, see here); it is enough to note that his political views are defined by crude resentment of Muslims, the fetishization of an Israel that does not exist, and little else.
      What is more remarkable about Lucas is the way in which he has fused extreme Zionism with homoeroticism in his films. His most widely promoted film, “Men of Israel,” contains a sex scene inside a Palestinian village that was ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias in 1947-48. Lucas describes the scene here (NSFW), deceptively stating that the village was “deserted centuries ago”:
      . . . we went to an abandoned village just north of Jerusalem. It was a beautiful ancient township that had been deserted centuries ago. . . . .however, that did not stop our guys from mounting each other and trying to repopulate it. Biology may not be the lesson of the day but these men shot their seeds all over the village. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to mondoweiss.net

      P.S. PETITION: “Save New York’s LGBT Center! Don’t Let Wealthy Bigots Shut Down Free Speech ”
      TO READ/SIGN THE PETITION - link to ipetitions.com

  • Visualizing Palestine: Where the color of your license plate dictates which roads you can drive on
    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 4:24 pm

      RE: "Visualizing Palestine: Where the color of your license plate dictates which roads you can drive on"

      MY COMMENT: We're not just visualizing!

      SEE: "US Funds Apartheid Roads on West Bank" ~ by Mel Frykberg, Inter Press Service, 5/24/10

      [EXCERPT] RAMALLAH - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is helping Israel to construct an apartheid road infrastructure in the occupied Palestinian West Bank by financing nearly a quarter of the segregated road system primarily for the benefit of Israeli settlers.
      USAID's figures state that the agency has financed 235 km of roads in the West Bank in the past decade, and is preparing to add another 120 km by the end of this year, reported Nazareth-based journalist Jonathan Cook in the United Arab Emirates paper ‘The National'.
      According to an April report released by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), USAID has helped build 114 km of segregated roads in the Palestinian territory despite assurances from Washington six years ago that it would not assist in the construction after the Palestinian Authority (PA) protested.
      Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem reports that 170 km of roads in the West Bank are either off-limits to Palestinians or highly restricted.
      After the Oslo Peace Accord in 1994, Israel requested the international community to finance 500 km of roads for the Palestinians, later termed ‘fabric of life' roads, including upgrading agricultural tracks and constructing many underpasses and bridges, at a cost of 200 million US dollars, reported Cook.
      However, donor countries rejected this request due to PA's protests that the entrenched apartheid-system infrastructure would strengthen the settlements and make their presence a permanent fixture while justifying more expropriation of Palestinian land.
      But it would appear that the PA has been railroaded, at the behest of Israel, into accepting USAID in a take it or leave it scenario. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to commondreams.org

  • Daniel Pipes says he and Steve Rosen drove Senate re 'so-called' Palestinian refugees
    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 2:54 pm with 1 replies

      RE: "The amendment, proposed by Mark Kirk (Republican of
      Illinois)..." - Daniel Pipes

      CORRECTION: The amendment, (secretly) proposed by AIPAC and fronted by Mark Kirk (Republican of Illinois). . .

      RE: "Daniel Pipes says he and Steve Rosen drove Senate re ‘so-called’ Palestinian refugees" ~ Weiss

      MY COMMENT: More hooey from the bonkers Pipes family!

      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. . .
      . . . It is the third team, chaired by Harvard University professor Richard Pipes [Daniel Pipes' father - J.L.D.], that ultimately received considerable publicity and is most commonly referred to as Team B. . .[4]
      . . . 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.)

    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 2:35 pm

      RE "Daniel Pipes says he and Steve Rosen drove Senate re ‘so-called’ Palestinian refugees" ~ Weiss

      MY SNARK: G_d bless Daniel Pipes for trying to keep "Jane Austen's England" alive and well.
      Now all you women get back in the kitchen where you belong!

      SEE: "In Jerusalem, Pipes suggests Muslim polygamy has ended ‘Jane Austen’ England", by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, 9/17/10
      LINK - link to mondoweiss.net

  • The crisis of Zionism
    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 2:25 pm

      A RELATED FACEBOOK GROUP
      Name - Hannah Arendt: Integrity Personified
      Category - Common Interest, Beliefs & Causes
      Description - A group for individuals who greatly respect the legendary Hannah Arendt, and who admire the immense integrity her life epitomized. Oh, come, all ye "conscious pariahs", Joyful and triumphant! Oh, come ye, oh, come ye...
      Open - All content is public.
      LINK – link to facebook.com

  • 'Hath not a Palestinian eyes?': Protesters disrupt Habima performance at Globe
    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 5:17 am

      Very funny! Either way, I'm afraid his doctrine will not be transcended.

      Elie Wiesel - link to en.wikipedia.org

      The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity - link to eliewieselfoundation.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 12:20 am

      RE: "This kind of activism will satisfy only those in the BDS cult." ~ hopmi
      AND RE: "Will you [hopmi] please explain in a reasonably intelligent manner how BDS is a cult?" ~ me (above)

      FOR EXAMPLE, SEE: Terrorists? Us?, by Owen Bennett-Jones, London Review of Books, Vol. 34 No. 11, June 7, 2012

      (excerpt). . . The MEK started to use cultlike methods – isolating members from friends and relatives and managing the flow of information that reached them – after 1989, the year its charismatic husband and wife leadership team, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, launched Operation Eternal Light. After Saddam’s failure to topple the regime in Iran, this was intended to be the big push that would finally win control of the country. Success, Rajavi told his fighters, was inevitable because the Iranian people, both civilians and military, would switch sides and join them on the march to Tehran. It would, he said, be a walkover. In the event the Iranian counter attack was ferocious. More than a thousand MEK fighters were killed and many others wounded. It lost around a third of its personnel.
      Rajavi had to come up with an explanation for the defeat. His unorthodox solution was to tell his fighters they had lost because they had been distracted by love and sex. He commanded members to divorce, become celibate and live in communal, single-sex accommodation, just like soldiers in a regular army. Filled with ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom, they did as they were told. (The celibacy rule is to this day so tightly enforced that there are separate times for men and women to use Camp Ashraf’s petrol station.) Members were urged to transfer their passions from their former spouses to their leaders, the Rajavis. Aware that people were becoming sexually frustrated, meetings were organised where members were obliged to confess their sexual fantasies in public. If you did confess to something, other members spat at you. Friendships were also discouraged at Camp Ashraf, and so were children. From the mid-1980s, citing safety concerns, the leadership ordered that several hundred children living in the camp be moved to pro-MEK foster families in Europe and Canada. Some parents have not seen their children for more than twenty years.
      These practices, along with frequent indoctrination sessions and the banning of news of the outside world (members were not allowed phones), helped the leadership
      to assert control.       But MEK members outside Iraq also displayed remarkable devotion to the cause. When in 2003 the French authorities detained Maryam Rajavi on terrorism charges (she was later released) ten MEK members around the world set themselves on fire in protest; two of them died. The MEK of course denies being a cult, though many outsiders – senior US military officers, FBI agents, journalists and analysts for the largely Pentagon-funded Rand Corporation – have been to Camp Ashraf and come away believing that it is. One senior State Department official (now retired), sent to Iraq to interview thousands of MEK members after the invasion, concluded that the organisation was a cult; that the weirdly child-free Camp Ashraf was ‘a human tragedy’; that members were ‘misused and misled’ by the leadership; and that many had been tricked into joining.
      The MEK has used various recruitment methods. The organisation’s elite joined in Iran before the revolution. Others are former Iranian conscripts captured during the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam’s regime offered them a bargain: if they joined the MEK they could move from POW camps to the more comfortable confines of Camp Ashraf.
      Some members were recruited on US university campuses and promised jobs, money, new passports and the chance to fight the mullahs. Others were simply deceived.
      One Iran-based MEK activist was told on a visit to Camp Ashraf that his wife and child had died so he might as well stay. It was ten years before he got hold of a phone; the first thing he did was call home: his family were still alive. Some former MEK members say that on arrival in Iraq they were whisked past immigration control and their passports deliberately left unstamped. If later on they said they wanted to leave Camp Ashraf they were told they would be arrested for entering the country illegally. I have heard hours of such testimony from former members. The MEK insists that all the people who tell such stories are Iranian agents. It also denies misleading families. The tears of parents, spouses and children seemed real enough to me. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to lrb.co.uk

    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 7:22 pm with 2 replies

      RE: "Sorry, Mooser, but you have been misinformed as to
      the nature of the King David hotel. It was British Military Intelligence HQ." ~ Fredblogs

      SEE: Can Jewish Liberals Transcend the Wiesel Doctrine?
      Countering the Israel Lobby’s Dominance      , by Alan Nasser, Counterpunch, 5/29/12

      • “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivitiess become irrelevant.” ~ Elie Wiesel, From the "Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences"

      • “My loyalty to my people, to our people, and to Israel comes first and prevents me from saying anything critical of Israel outside Israel… As a Jew I see my role as a melitz yosher, a defender of Israel: I defend even her mistakes… I must identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors.” ~ Elie Wiesel, "Against Silence"

      . . . Bienart sees that as an American Jew he bears a special responsibility to act on the words, hypocritically penned by Elie Wiesel, cited at the head of this article: “We must always take sides…. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.” I say he’s right.

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to counterpunch.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 3:54 pm

      P.S. FROM WIKIPEDIA [British Mandate for Palestine (legal instrument)]:

      (excerpts) The British Mandate for Palestine, officially simply the Mandate for Palestine, was a legal commission for the administration of Palestine, the draft of which was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922, amended via the 16 September 1922 Transjordan memorandum[1][2] and which came into effect on 29 September 1923[1] following the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne.[3][4] The mandate ended at midnight on 14 May 1948. [The King David Hotel was bombed by the Irgun in 1946. - J.L.D.]
      The document was based on the principles contained in Article 22 of the draft Covenant of the League of Nations and the San Remo Resolution of 25 April 1920 by the principal Allied and associated powers after the First World War.[1] The mandate formalised British rule in the southern part of Ottoman Syria from 1923–1948. . .
      . . . The United States was not a member of the League of Nations, and consequently was not required to officially state its position on the legality of the Palestinian Mandate. However, the US government accepted the de facto, if not de jure, status of the mandates and entered into individual treaties with the mandatory power to secure legal rights for its citizens and to protect property rights and business interests in the mandates. In the case of Palestine, on 3 December 1924, it entered into a bilateral treaty with Britain in the Palestine Mandate Convention, in which the United States "consents to the administration" (Article 1) and which dealt with eight issues of concern to the United States.[85][86] . . .

      SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 3:44 pm

      RE: "Sorry, Mooser, but you have been misinformed as to the nature of the King David hotel. It was British Military Intelligence HQ." ~ Fredblogs

      HASBARIST CREED: "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us." (This creed also works for Neocons, Team B, Republicans, Fox News, Fundies, etc.)

      FROM WIKIPEDIA [King David Hotel bombing]:

      . . . The Irgun, considered to be terrorists by Mi5,[6] planted a bomb in the basement of the main building of the hotel, under the wing which housed the Mandate Secretariat and a few offices of the British military headquarters. . .
      . . . Irgun committed the attack in response to Operation Agatha, known within Israel then and now as "Black Saturday".[7] British troops had searched the Jewish Agency on June 29 and confiscated large quantities of documents about the group's operations and links with violent groups. The intelligence information was taken to the King David Hotel building in Jerusalem.[8] . . .
      . . . 91 people were killed, most of them being staff of the hotel or Secretariat: 21 were first-rank government officials; 49 were second-rank clerks, typists and messengers, junior members of the Secretariat, employees of the hotel and canteen workers; 13 were soldiers; 3 policemen; and 5 were members of the public. By nationality, there were 41 Arabs, 28 British citizens, 17 Palestinian Jews, 2 Armenians, 1 Russian, 1 Greek and 1 Egyptian. 46 people were injured.[3][4] Some of the deaths and injuries occurred in the road outside the hotel and in adjacent buildings. No identifiable traces were found of thirteen of those killed.[3] One of the dead was Yulius Jacobs, an Irgun sympathizer.[13] . . .
      . . . The Jewish political leadership publicly condemned the attack. The Jewish Agency expressed "their feelings of horror at the base and unparalleled act perpetrated today by a gang of criminals", despite the fact that the Irgun was acting in response to the Jewish Resistance Movement, an organisation governed by the Jewish Agency.[16] The Jewish National Council denounced the bombing.[8] According to The Jerusalem Post, "[a]lthough the Hagana had sanctioned the King David bombing, world-wide condemnation caused the organization to distance itself from the attack."[7] David Ben-Gurion deemed Irgun "the enemy of the Jewish people" after the attack. Hatsofeh, a Jewish newspaper in Palestine, went as far as to label the Irgun perpetrators "fascists".[23] . . .
      . . . The bombing has appeared in literature about the practice and history of terrorism. It has been called one of the most lethal terrorist attacks of the 20th century.[27] . . .
      . . . In July 2006, the Menachem Begin Heritage Center organized a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing. The conference was attended by past and future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun.[30] A plaque commemorating the bombing was unveiled . . .

      SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 3:11 pm with 1 replies

      RE: "Just like pro-Palestinian protesters. They have
      nothing positive to say or do. They just knock what the Israelis do. It’s all negativity with them. Let them bring a Palestinian acting troupe to perform at the Globe rather than complaining about an Israeli company." ~ hopmi

      SUBMITTED: "Just like pro-Jewish protesters. They have nothing positive to say or do. They just knock what the Nazis do. It’s all negativity with them. Let them bring a Jewish acting troupe to perform at the Globe rather than complaining about a Nazi
      company. . ."       ~ hypothetical Nazi supporter in 1938

      P.S. Will you please explain in a reasonably intelligent manner how BDS is a cult?*
      CULT - link to en.wikipedia.org
      * P.P.S. "Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us!" ~ Hasbarist Creed

    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 2:07 pm

      RE: "...pro-Israel audience members shouted abuse at the protesters, as can be seen in the video above. Some physically attacked the demonstrators, including an Israel apologist who kneed in the back a young, female protester." ~ Eleanor Kilroy

      REMINDS ME OF:
      • Video: Pro-Israel Activist Knocks Camera Out of Hands of Alison Weir (VIDEO, 02:36) - link to youtube.com
      • Stand With Us’ Assault on the Jewish Peace Movement -
      link to richardsilverstein.com
      • The Pogromists at Stand With Us - link to richardsilverstein.com
      • 'AIPAC activists beat me' - link to ynetnews.com
      • Activist files suit against Netanyahu supporters who attacked her in Capitol - link to mondoweiss.net
      • JudeoFascists Attack Home of Progressive Rabbi Michael Lerner - link to blogs.alternet.org

      • ALSO SEE - Jewish Values vs. Israeli Policies: Why five young Jews disrupted PM Netanyahu in New Orleans, by Rae Abileah, Mondoweiss, 11/09/12

      (excerpt)...And finally, after Netanyahu summarized the two “greatest threats” to Israel – a nuclear Iran and “delegitimizers”– I stood up and unfurled a pink banner that read, “The settlements betray Jewish values” and in Hebrew: “Justice, justice you shall pursue,” a verse from Deuteronomy. The crowd had grown increasingly hostile with each disruption, and I was instantly attacked from all sides. A man in the row in front of me pulled the El Al seat cover off his chair and tried to gag me with it. Another man came up from the side and grabbed me by the throat. I fell into a pile of chairs until two female sheriffs buoyed me up and hustled me out of the room. The police later confided that they were trying to protect me from the angry mob and get me out of there in one piece.
      The JTA reported: “Jeff Shapiro from San Antonio grabbed her from behind and put her in a choke hold, dragging her backwards towards the floor. When asked later if he had ever put a woman in a chokehold, he replied, ‘Not really. No. I really did not know what was going to happen, I wanted to keep her in check. I was trying to help.’” Jeff Shapiro, according to an Internet search is the president of the synagogue brotherhood and a 7th grade teacher at Temple Beth-El, and is the chair of the Federation's San Antonio Association for Jewish Education. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to mondoweiss.net

  • A mother sends 'a message to the whole world' about the Palestinian will
    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 12:35 pm

      RE: "Arresting someone hours before finalizing a dream that takes years of study and effort to achieve seems particularly cruel and heartless. But it is what we've come to expect from this military occupation." ~ Annie Robbins

      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

      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] . . .
      . . . In the learned helplessness experiment an animal is repeatedly hurt by an adverse stimulus which it cannot escape.
      Eventually the animal will stop trying to avoid the pain and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation.
      Finally, when opportunities to escape are presented, this learned helplessness prevents any action.       The only coping mechanism the animal uses is to be stoical and put up with the discomfort, not expending energy getting worked up about the adverse stimulus. . .

      SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org

  • The antiwar thinktank: West Point
    • DICKERSON3870 May 29, 2012 at 1:24 pm

      RE: "The Brookings Institution isn't antiwar...Why are liberal institutions AWOL? ...Haim Saban funds Brookings, and he's an ardent Zionist." ~ Weiss

      SEE: “Haim Saban”, by Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic, June 10, 2007

      (excerpt) If you're interested in the foreign policy views of major Hillary Clinton financial backer Haim Saban, there's no need to follow the Atrios path of attempting guilt by association with Kenneth Pollack*. He discussed his views on the Middle East and Persian Gulf region in great detail in a reasonably recent interview with 'Haaretz':
      "When I see Ahmadinejad, I see Hitler. They speak the same language. His motivation is also clear: the return of the Mahdi is a supreme goal. And for a religious person of deep self-persuasion, that supreme goal is worth the liquidation of five and a half million Jews. We cannot allow ourselves that. Nuclear weapons in the hands of a religious leadership that is convinced that the annihilation of Israel will bring about the emergence of a new Muslim caliphate? Israel cannot allow that. This is no game. It's truly an existential danger..."...

      SOURCE - link to theatlantic.com

      * FROM WIKIPEDIA [Kenneth Pollack]:

      (excerpts) Kenneth Michael Pollack, PhD (born 1966), is a noted former CIA intelligence analyst. . .
      . . . Outside of government, he worked for the Brookings Institution as the director of research at its Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He previously worked for the Council of Foreign Relations as their director of national security studies. . .
      . . . Pollack is credited with persuading liberals of the case for the Iraq war. "New York Times" columnist Bill Keller, in supporting the Iraq war in 2003, wrote “Kenneth Pollack, the Clinton National Security Council expert whose argument for invading Iraq is surely the most influential book of this season, has provided intellectual cover for every liberal who finds himself inclining toward war but uneasy about Mr. Bush.”[2] . . .
      . . . A U.S. government indictment alleges that Pollack provided information to former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) employees Steve J. Rosen and Keith Weissman during the AIPAC espionage scandal.[8] . . .

      SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

      P.S. ALSO SEE: Thinktank [Foundation for Defense of Democracies] that promoted war w/ Iraq (& now Iran) was funded by Steinhardt, Saban, Bronfman, Feith and Marcus (of Home Depot) - link to mondoweiss.net

  • The crisis of integrationism
  • WaPo unearths.... Iranian plot to assassinate US embassy officials
  • Alterman says BDS shares Ahmadinejad's agenda, and Hezbollah's too
    • DICKERSON3870 May 28, 2012 at 3:20 pm

      RE: "Were Barghouti to ask American Jews to join him in pressuring Israel to come to its senses and negotiate a secure settlement based on the 1967 lines, with necessary adjustments on both sides and some sort symbolic (and perhaps financial) redress for Palestinians without the “right of return,” he might stand a chance of attracting significant support even among American Jews..." ~ Alterman

      MY COMMENT: Fat chance of that any time soon! It might be possible in 20-30 years, after the settlements have completely consumed the West Bank. So, what's the point in that?

      P.S. (MUSIC) The Inituition: "There is no end. There is no beginning." (VIDEO, 06:10) - link to youtube.com

  • Fear, the African refugees and the cost of maintaining Israel as a Jewish state
    • DICKERSON3870 May 31, 2012 at 12:57 am

      RE: "...the Chinese and Koreans are still mighty upset by the treatment of WW2 in Japanese school textbooks." ~ Citizen

      REPLY: Yes, I've seen some articles about this. A "comfort station" and "comfort women" feature prominently in the excellent 2009 film Nanjing! Nanjing!, also released as City of Life and Death.

      • City of Life and Death, Official Trailer (VIDEO, 01:45) - link to youtube.com

      • Netflix listing – link to movies.netflix.com

      A REVIEWER AT NETFLIX:

      (excerpt) Wow. I am a dedicated historian, but this [the film "City of Life and Death"] is the best depiction of the Nanking Massacre I have ever seen, much grittier than "Nanking", "The Children of Huang Shui" or "John Rabe". It is so realistic that it will overpower you, and you will find yourself horrified at the magnitude of violence committed by the Imperial Japanese Army (most of which went unpunished to this day). . .

      FROM WIKIPEDIA [Comfort women]:

      (excerpt) The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.[1][2]
      Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars[3] to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese scholars,[4] but the exact numbers are still being researched and debated. A majority of the women were from Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines,[5] although women from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and other Japanese-occupied territories were used for military "comfort stations". Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, then Burma, then New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and what was then French Indochina.[6]
      Young women from countries under Japanese Imperial control were abducted from their homes. In many cases, women were also lured with promises of work in factories or restaurants. Once recruited, the women were incarcerated in "comfort stations" in foreign lands. Other women were rounded up at gunpoint, some being raped before being herded into "comfort stations".[2][7] It has been documented that the Japanese military itself recruited women by force.[8] Some "comfort stations" were run by private agents supervised by the Japanese Army or run directly by the Japanese Army.[1][2]
      Some Japanese, such as historian Ikuhiko Hata, deny that there was organized forced recruitment of comfort women by the Japanese government or military.[9] Other Japanese historians, using the testimony of ex-comfort women and surviving Japanese soldiers have argued that the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were either directly or indirectly involved in coercing, deceiving, luring, and sometimes kidnapping young women throughout Japan's occupied territories.[10] . . .

      SOURCE - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 28, 2012 at 8:58 pm with 3 replies

      P.P.S. Japanese Victory Dance in Nanjing [from the 2009 film Nanjing! Nanjing!, also released as City of Life and Death (VIDEO, 05:00) - link to youtube.com

      P.S. Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com

    • DICKERSON3870 May 28, 2012 at 4:36 pm

      P.S. FROM Ira Chernus, 01/20/11:

      (excerpt)...White Americans, going back to early colonial times, generally assigned the role of “bad guys” to “savages” lurking in the wilderness beyond the borders of our civilized land. Whether they were redskins, commies, terrorists, or the Taliban, the plot has always remained the same.
      Call it the myth of national security -- or, more accurately, national insecurity, since it always tells us who and what to fear. It’s been a mighty (and mighty effective) myth exactly because it lays out with such clarity not just what Americans are against, but also what we are for, what we want to keep safe and secure: the freedom of the individual, especially the freedom to make and keep money...

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to commondreams.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 28, 2012 at 4:28 pm

      RE: "I often wondered where all this fear came from..." ~ Neta Golan

      ALSO SEE: Israel’s Defense Chief OK’s Hundreds of Israeli Deaths, By Ira Chernus, CommonDreams.org, 11/11/11

      (excerpt). . . An essential motive of Zionism from its beginning was a fierce desire to end the centuries of Jewish weakness, to show the world that Jews would no longer be pushed around *, that they’d fight back and prove themselves tougher than their enemies. There was more to Zionism than that. But the “pride through strength” piece came to dominate the whole project. Hence the massive Israeli military machine with its nuclear arsenal.
      But you can’t prove that you’re stronger than your enemies unless you’ve also got enemies -- or at least believe you’ve got enemies -- to fight against. So there has to be a myth of Israel’s insecurity, fueled by an image of vicious anti-semites lurking somewhere out there, for Zionism to work. Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, Iran has gradually risen to the top of Israel oh-so-necessary enemies list. Iranophobia is rampant in Israel, as one Israeli scholar writes, because “Israel needs an existential threat."
      Anyone who has grown up in Israel, or in the U.S. Jewish community (as I did), and paid attention knows all this. . .

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to commondreams.org
      ALSO SEE - Iranophobia: The Panic of the Hegemons, by Ira Chernus, Tikkun Magazine,
      November/December 2010
      LINK - link to tikkun.org

      * The notion that European Jews (or Roma/Gypsies, gays, etc., for that matter) “went like sheep to the slaughter” (during the Holocaust) and therefore would only safe in a Jewish nation-state is what I consider to be one of the most thoroughly disgusting propaganda creations of the Zionists! That is one travesty I will never forgive the Zionists for!
      Learned helplessness - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 28, 2012 at 4:05 pm with 4 replies

      P.S. RE: “Most Israelis agree with Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak’s statement they are living in ‘a villa in the jungle’.” ~ Neta Golan

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

      THIS AFTERNOON’S SELECTION: Liz Taylor Stampeded & Slapped (VIDEO, 02:12) - link to youtube.com

      WIKIPEDIA: Elephant Walk (1954) - link to en.wikipedia.org

    • DICKERSON3870 May 28, 2012 at 3:47 pm with 5 replies

      RE: "Most Israelis agree with Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak's statement they are living in 'a villa in the jungle'." ~ Neta Golan

      A MID-SPRING AFTERNOON'S MUSICAL 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!™

      THIS AFTERNOON'S SELECTION: "Baby Elephant Walk", by Henry Mancini from the 1962 film Hatari! (VIDEO, 03:05) - link to youtube.com

  • Netanyahu govt to impose fines on mayors of cities that employ migrant workers
    • DICKERSON3870 May 27, 2012 at 4:37 pm with 1 replies

      RE: "We will also start to enforce this so that they do not employ infiltrators. They will employ Israelis instead, the place of infiltrators is in the countries that they came from," said Yishai. . .

      SOFTLY SPOKEN IN THE STYLE OF MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD: "Can you say apartheid? Sure you can!"

      SEE: Immigrants and Birth Certificates, by Christopher Brauchli, Common Dreams, 5/26/12

      (excerpt). . . Sadly, the law signed by Alabama’s governor earlier this month retains the requirement that schools check on the citizenship of their students. As a result, on the first day of school teachers will ask all students who are illegal immigrants to raise their hands. The new law also retained the provision that police could check the citizenship status of anyone they stopped irrespective of whether a citation was issued or an arrest made. So much for Alabama.
      Arizona, too, is back in the news but by the skin of its teeth, the news is good. Arizona’s House Bill 2177 was passed by the Arizona legislature in 2011. Known as the birther bill it required that for a presidential candidate’s name to appear on the Arizona ballot the candidate would have to prove that he or she was a natural born U.S. citizen. Under the bill each candidate was required to present an affidavit stating his or her age and citizenship, present a long form birth certificate and, for good measure, a statement describing where the candidate has lived for 14 years. Absent a long form birth certificate, the statutory requirement was permitted to be fulfilled by a candidate presenting an “early baptismal or circumcision* certificate.” It is not clear if instead of a circumcision certificate the candidate, if a male, would have been permitted to simply present the appropriate appendage to the certifying authority [or perhaps submit a notarized "dickprint", a/k/a "penisprint" - J.L.D.] that could by visual inspection determine whether or not the procedure had been performed. In all events, it turned out that it doesn’t matter.
      Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who has been willing to sign lots of whacky legislation, drew the line at this one. In vetoing the bill she said she couldn’t imagine requiring candidates for the highest office in the land to present “early baptismal or circumcision certificates. . . . This measure creates significant new problems while failing to do anything constructive for Arizona.” Some thought that would put that particular measure to rest. Some were wrong. . .

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY - link to commondreams.org

      * MIGHT THIS HAVE BEEN THE WORK OF DAVID YERUSHALMI?
      SEE: "David Yerushalmi, Islam-Hating White Supremacist Inspires Anti-Sharia Bills Sweeping Tea Party Nation", by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 3/02/11
      LINK - link to richardsilverstein.com
      ALSO: "Prominent Islamophobes Identified As ‘Heading Up The Radical Right’", by Eli Clifton, Think Progress, 5/24/12
      LINK - link to thinkprogress.org

  • Resume builders: Be a broken record on Iran, cheer authoritarians in Gulf
    • DICKERSON3870 May 27, 2012 at 11:38 am

      RE: "A former aide to Hillary Clinton at the State Department, Jeffrey Feltman is reported to be about to get a big job at the UN, Under Secy Genl for Political Affairs." ~ Weiss

      MY COMMENT: Good old Jeffrey "Saint Nicholas" Feltman!

      SEE: How the US and Israel Hope to Destroy Hezbollah ~ Franklin Lamb, Counterpunch, 11/19/10

      (excerpt) "I’ve got these [expletive deleted] just where we want them Maura! Watch the 1000 slow cuts as we shred Hezbollah–who do they think they are? And we’ll do it by using 1757 and this time we’re going all the way. I told Israel to stay out of Lebanon because the IDF can’t defeat Hezbollah plus the whole region would burn. I will handle this and it will be my Christmas present to Lebanon.”
      So, reportedly, said Jeffrey Feltman in conversation with his former office staffer, now US Ambassador to Lebanon, Maura Connelly during October 17, 2010 visit with MP Walid Jumblatt at his Clemenceau residence.On December 12, 2008, Naharnet.com reported that “Former US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman presented Prime Minister Fuad Siniora with what the American diplomat described as his personal Christmas present to Lebanon. Mr. Feltman assured PM Siniora that he will force Israel out of Ghajar village before the end of 2008.”
      As it turned out, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Lebanon never did receive Feltman’s promised 2008 Christmas present and Israel has its tanks and troops in Lebanon’s Ghajar village even as pressure mounts for ending its four-year illegal occupation of North Ghajar which, in violation of UNSCR 1701, Israel invaded in July 2006 and from which it has refused to withdraw. Feltman is now again assuring his Lebanese allies that he’s Santa Claus and Hezbollah’s head will adorn his sleigh during his Christmas eve rounds. . .

      ENTIRE ARTICLE - link to counterpunch.org

  • Slater on Beinart
    • DICKERSON3870 May 27, 2012 at 3:39 pm with 1 replies

      P.P.S. RE: “Yet, somehow, even if we believe the struggle is hopeless, we must act as if it isn’t.” ~ Slater

      NOT FOR THE FEINT OF HEART: Valhalla Rising, 2009, NR, 92 minutes
      Disfigured warrior One-Eye kills his master and escapes, taking the man's young son with him. The pair sets sail with a band of Christian Crusaders bound for the Holy Land, but they arrive in the nightmarish New World instead.
      Director:Nicolas Winding Refn
      Netflix availability: Streaming and DVD
      Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
      Valhalla Rising, Official Trailer (VIDEO, 02:02) - link to youtube.com
      On YouTube in 7 segments - link to youtube.com..0l3.35805.35805.0.39583.1.1.0.0.0.0.50.50.1.1.0...0.0.cZ-nC8ByAgQ

      This excellent film (with a sublime musical score) is somewhat evocative of Werner Herzog's "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" (1972) in which Klaus Kinski played the lead. For a nice examination of the film "Aguirre the Wrath of God", see "Aguirre the Wrath of God in 8 Minutes" (VIDEO, 08:42 - by gbriggs154 on Feb 20, 2012) on YouTube.- link to youtube.com

    • DICKERSON3870 May 27, 2012 at 12:37 pm

      P.S. RE: "Yet, somehow, even if we believe the struggle is hopeless, we must act as if it isn’t.” ~ Slater

      A NICE DOCUMENTARY: Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight, 2009, NR, 73 minutes (Streaming from Netflix until 6/1/12)
      His name might not be very familiar, but the works of graphic artist Milton Glaser -- whose prolific output includes the "I Love NY" ad campaign, as well as album covers for Townes Van Zandt and Nina Simone -- are recognizable to many.
      Director: Wendy Keys
      Netflix Availability: Streaming and DVD (Streaming until 6/1/12)
      Netflix listing - link to movies.netflix.com
      Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight (Trailer) (VIDEO, 01:00) - link to youtube.com
      Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight - Intro (VIDEO, 02:48) - link to youtube.com
      Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight post-screening Q&A (VIDEO, 23:07) - link to youtube.com

    • DICKERSON3870 May 27, 2012 at 11:23 am with 3 replies

      RE: "Consequently, there is no good reason to revere or love Israel; such feelings should be reserved for the unflinchingly honest and brave Israeli dissidents." ~ Slater

      MY COMMENT: As hopeless as "the situation(s)" seem(s), I glean immeasurable inspiration from "the unflinchingly honest and brave Israeli dissidents"!

      RE: "The likelihood of such sanctions being imposed on Israel by the American Jewish community, the U.S. government, and the West, is close to nonexistent. Yet, somehow, even if we believe the struggle is hopeless, we must act as if it isn’t." ~ Slater

      MY COMMENT: I wholeheartedly agree, but it is so much more easily said than done.

      P.S. 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. . .
      . . . Having Norman [Soloman] 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.*

      MORE INFORMATION - link to mondoweiss.net

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

  • Israel lobby's favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status for millions
    • DICKERSON3870 May 27, 2012 at 10:57 am

      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 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 with 1 replies

      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
  • 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

  • '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

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