Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 582 (since 2009-11-22 01:46:18)

composer, educator, political, environmental and arts blogger from Wasilla, Alaska

Website: http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/

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  • Israeli report on al-Dura case is vengeful and 'surreal,' says Haaretz -- but 'NYT' treats it as gospel
    • Philip Munger May 20, 2013 at 11:46 pm with 1 replies

      Let's see:

      The King David Hotel was caused by a faulty boiler

      Count Folke Bernadotte committed suicide

      The U.S.S. Liberty was attacked by Soviet pilots

      Egypt started the 6-Day War

      Rachel Corrie ran under the bulldozer blade after fighting with a boyfriend

      Emily Henochowicz poked herself in the eye

      The nine dead on the Mavi Marmara were the result of a fratricidal battle among ringleaders, only stopped by brave Israelis who intervened

      .... and so on

  • Glenn Greenwald brings facts and reason to 'Real Time', ruins Bill Maher's night
    • Philip Munger May 12, 2013 at 1:35 pm with 6 replies

      I didn't know there was any sort of "tremendous support" by the Israelis for Montt's regime. Is there a definitive article on this? I did a quick search and couldn't come up with anything substantive.

  • Dershowitz calls Hawking an 'ignoramus,' a 'lemming,' and likely an anti-Semite
  • A Catholic heritage community is next on the occupation's chopping block
    • Philip Munger April 28, 2013 at 12:40 am

      I had some of their Carignan back around 2009. I'd rate it around 88 or so, and had a nice aftertaste. If they were able to concentrate more on what they do there, I'm sure the wine would be better.

      However, the aftertaste of this wall extension will lead to bitter harvests.

      This decision and what happens next needs to get wide coverage.

      link to cremisan.org

  • Kerry likens Boston victims to 'Mavi Marmara' victims
    • Philip Munger April 23, 2013 at 12:17 pm

      The Free Gaza Flotilla were in international waters and were heading AWAY from Gaza when the attack occurred, not towards. Israel pursued them and attacked them.

      I wish more people knew that.

      To those of us who followed the interception in real time, both from the intermittent video feed from the MV Mari Marmara, and from its tracking transponder on Live Ships Maps, it was clear that the MVMM and associated vessels were putting distance between themselves and the coasts of Israel, Gaza and Egypt (a course of about 265 degrees true), and were well within international waters, at the time they were illegally attacked. None had ever come close to any coastal waters or legitimate exclusionary area.

      All the Israelis had to do to the Mavi Marmara to stop it was to foul its props or rudders, which I could have told them how to do. The vessel would have then drifted, until towed back to Turkey by a tug. The attack wasn't just illegal. It was stupid. Everyone involved in its planning should have been cashiered out of the service within days.

  • Obama gets it
  • Some thoughts on the 10-year anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie
    • Philip Munger March 18, 2013 at 12:38 am

      No apology needed, Phan. I do hope to meet you soon.

    • Philip Munger March 17, 2013 at 2:51 pm with 1 replies

      Thanks once again, Phan.

      A minor error in this article, is in the caption to the photo of the woman and girl standing outside the Hackney Empire Theatre on November 1, 2005. They are indeed outside that theatre on November 1, but My Name is Rachel Corrie had closed four days previously at the Royal Court Theatre's downstairs Jerwood Theatre. What was occurring at the Hackney Empire on November 1 was the London premiere of my cantata dedicated to Rachel's memory, The Skies Are Weeping. One can see the corner of one of the event's posters in the upper right of the photo.

      The women were part of one of three demonstrations outside the event on that evening. All three demonstrations were organized by Jewish groups, yet two of them were in a sense counter demonstrations, in support of my music and other music being presented in the concert, a benefit for the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.

      I invited the two women in the photo and several others from their "All the Other Rachels" protest group in to attend the concert. I offered to pay their tickets. They refused. Too bad.

      I posted this yesterday:

      link to my.firedoglake.com

  • Netherlands takes bold move: settlement products must be labeled
  • It's delicious to see very uncool people fall for 'Rolling Stones' anti-BDS hoax
    • Philip Munger March 3, 2013 at 1:25 pm

      the reliably unreliable Algemeiner

      Precious, and so true. Forward that one to Abby Martin's writers.

      Looks like you're being hassled at the AIPAC farce, Phan. Good luck!

  • Denied entry by Israel, American teacher prepares to say goodbye to Palestinian students
    • Philip Munger February 28, 2013 at 9:50 pm with 1 replies

      Such great-looking kids, so happy in the picture, now sadder, with another reason to mistrust their oppressors.

      She was also asked if she knew any prisoners, a question she had not answered previously. When she said she did not, the Shin Bet members asked her whether she knew anyone who had a relative in prison.

      When she said she did not, the Shin Bet Stasi asked her if she knew anyone who knew anyone who had .....

  • Chuck Hagel confirmed as Secretary of Defense by 58-41 vote (Updated)
  • Years of impunity for Israeli leaders may draw to a close in Turkish flotilla trial
    • Philip Munger February 26, 2013 at 3:25 pm

      Iara Lee smuggled the material out of Israel inside her body.

      On June 12, 2010, I posted the same raw footage at firedoglake, under the headline "Proof of Murder Aboard the Mavi Marmara." In the comments, people noted a lot of disturbing events, before and after the vessel was illegally boarded and seized:

      link to my.firedoglake.com

  • '5 Broken Cameras' loses out to 'Searching for Sugar Man' for best doc Oscar
  • Documents reveal how US let Israel off the hook over 'execution' of American Furkan Dogan
    • Philip Munger February 23, 2013 at 2:19 pm

      People attempting to cover the Mavi Marmara interception and boarding live did the best they could. There was an intermittent live stream coming off the vessel, and one could track its exact position via the bridge transponder, up until the Israelis commandeered the bridge and turned it off. At the time of interception and boarding, the Mavi Marmara was headed away from the coast. From images sent out before boarding, one could see a lot of people making videos, taking photographs, and there were rows of computers, monitors and laptops set up. Dozens of passengers tweeted, called on their cell phones, and so on. Israeli jamming attempts were only partially successful.

      Dogan most likely was murdered not because of the fact he was filming, but because of what he had captured on camera.

      It might be timely to go back through my live blog of the Mavi Marmara's run to the coast:

      link to my.firedoglake.com

      and Siun's live blog of the interception and boarding:

      link to firedoglake.com

      Iara Lee's smuggled video composite is compelling:

      link to my.firedoglake.com

      Maybe a new movie could be made - "1,000 broken cameras" ..... ?

      To me, the most compelling images that succeeded in getting out on the time of the Israeli assault, were of the humane care taken by passengers and organizers on the cruise ship, with captured Israeli soldiers.

      link to progressivealaska.blogspot.com

  • NPR blames the victim: Emad Burnat brought suffering to Bil'in by filming occupiers
    • Philip Munger February 21, 2013 at 1:57 pm

      Listened to Larry Abramson's flawed report 2X this morning, while shaving, showering, ironing, etc. Not as bad as Shira Frankel's October 2009 report on Jewish vigilante groups trying to discourage dating between Jewish young women and non-Jewish young men:

      link to npr.org

      I'm all for having Jewish reporters at NPR. How about Max Blumenthal or any of the dozens of reporters on this list:

      link to masada2000.org

  • 'NYT' says Irish ethnic solidarity is problematic
    • Philip Munger February 19, 2013 at 9:12 am

      Tribalism is as tribalism does.

      Living in Alaska and working occasionally with Alaska Native artists, having Alaska Native college students, and having a wife who travels to tiny Native villages in the Alaska bush to mentor young teachers, I see tribes struggling to keep what little they have in terms of culture and identity.

      Tribes attempting to keep their languages from dying out, their kids from committing suicide at appalling rates, their young women from being raped (mostly by Whites) at 3rd world levels. Their subsistence lifestyles from being transferred to trophy hunters, their resources plundered by global energy and mining corporations.

      At the same time, I sometimes witness young, brilliant Native thinkers reach into their tribal legacy to suggest solutions to environmental problems that threaten to overwhelm not just their own tribes, but humanity itself.

  • Hagel vote set for today as opposition flounders
    • Philip Munger February 11, 2013 at 3:06 pm

      "If you're Chuck Schumer, if you're Carl Levin and you're a Democrat with a strong conection to the Jewish community, how can you possibly vote for Chuck Hagel and ever have credibility ever again with the Jewish community? Or for that matter with the rest of America," Huckabee said.

      "If it proves true the rumors of Chuck Hagel's having received funds from Friends of Hamas, if that's true than on its face that would disqualify him," Huckabee said, referring to a rumor that originated on Breitbart.com that Hagel is refusing to turn over foreign financial disclosures because one of the sources is an entity called "Friends of Hamas." (The report has not been confirmed.)

      --- SNL scriptwriters - pull out your pens.

  • SNL on Hagel: 'It is vital to Israel's security for you to go on national television and perform oral sex on a donkey... Would you do THAT for Israel?'
  • Following weeks of controversy, Barghouti and Butler deliver sharp response to critics of BDS movement at Brooklyn College event
  • The clearest distillation yet of the pro-Israel argument against tonight's BDS event at Brooklyn College
  • Official who threatened Brooklyn College funding calls BDS speakers 'anti-Semitic fools'
  • Brooklyn College president: 'There is no academic obligation to present' a pro-Israel perspective at boycott event
  • Fmr State Dep't official who denounced Goldstone Report leapfrogs from Amnesty Int'l to prestige literary org PEN
  • Anointed by Kristol, rising Middle East expert Rand Paul lectures Kerry
    • Philip Munger January 27, 2013 at 4:57 pm

      I was forced to have to put Palin back into my mind this past week because of the end of her FOX contract. While reading about that, I came across Nick Broomfield's Palin movie, which is now on youtube in its entirety. 15 minutes into it, I had to go outside and retch my guts out.

      link to my.firedoglake.com

      Back to Rand Paul: He may set a new record for pandering to the lobby, but his timing is off.

    • Philip Munger January 27, 2013 at 3:41 pm with 4 replies

      I'm not a huge fan of Rand Paul, but if you watch the clips with him, there is something attractive about him

      He also found Palin attractive. Why don't potential candidates keep themselves about 1,000 miles away from Kristol?

      Rand Paul gives me the creeps. I doubt he will prove to be a viable presidential candidate.

  • No diversity: NPR's 'National Conversation' on US-Israel future includes 5 Zionists, no Palestinians
    • Philip Munger January 19, 2013 at 2:37 pm

      I corresponded with Michael Waltzer after the dispute came out in some blogs about what he implied in his exchange with James Rule. In part, he wrote to me:

      I did not call anyone an anti-Semite, not Jim Rule, and certainly not American Presbyterians. I don’t trade in that currency; I never have.

      I was more concerned about Waltzer's characterization of American Presbyterian actions regarding BDS than with the Rule-Waltzer exchange, but that is another subject.

  • Lobby leans on Schumer to block Hagel-- now that Ackerman, Berman, Frank, Weiner, Rothman and Lieberman are gone
    • Philip Munger January 13, 2013 at 6:29 pm with 2 replies

      Zionism is not a religious ideology

      --- you're kidding, right?

      Zionism (Hebrew: ציונות, Tsiyonut) is a form of nationalism of Jews and Jewish culture that supports a Jewish nation state in the territory defined as the Land of Israel.

      It isn't about Islam, Christianity (per se), Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, Hinduism, Native American Animism or worship of the Nordic Gods.

      If we were dealing instead with "a form of nationalism of Zoroastrians and Zoroastrian culture that supports a Zoroastrian nation state in the territory defined as the Land of Mazdastan," would that also not be religious?

  • Where were Chuck Hagel and Bill Kristol in Vietnam era?
    • Philip Munger January 11, 2013 at 2:36 pm with 1 replies

      "Come down and see the radio room, the radar installation…"

      --- and the shredder next to a scupper...

    • Philip Munger January 10, 2013 at 3:13 pm with 3 replies

      I got my draft notice in 1965, when I was 18. After I was honorably discharged, I helped the AFSC get draft dodgers into BC from Washington State. And I worked with a lot of young people getting their draft notices, all the way up through 1972, when the first draft lottery was performed. My younger brother came up with #313. All the way through 1971, most notices went to 18- or 19-year-old young men.

      If Kristol was in the February 1972 lottery, he would have been 20 by then, which means to have avoided being drafted earlier - from after his 18th birthday on - he needed some sort of deferment, or to have lived under the jurisdiction of a local board that was selectively targeting some kids, and neglecting others (it happened).

      Regarding tommy's comment above, accusing Hagel being of being a "war criminal," Bravo! on your hatred of war; Boo! on your lack of understanding either the motivations or sense of morality millions of young men were subject to c. 1965. How was Hagel to understand this morality you stand by? One in a hundred young American men outside of the most liberal college campuses at that time had any sense of how wrong Vietnam was. Most who avoided the draft who I worked with up into 1969 sensed the war was wrong, but seldom described it as a war crime. After My Lai became public in late 1969, that changed, but not markedly.

  • In choosing Hagel, an antiwar president gets backup from the new Israel lobby
    • Philip Munger January 9, 2013 at 12:35 pm

      As observed above, the headline's characterization of Obama as "antiwar" is irksome, especially when one views it on Mondoweiss' home page, being right above Medea Benjamin's excellent article's headline, "John Brennan, assassin."

      I guess, Phil Weiss' headline expresses hope, Medea Benjamin's reflects reality.

  • Israel lobby doesn't want Al Jazeera coming into 'millions of American homes'
    • Philip Munger January 5, 2013 at 7:39 pm

      I had an Al Jazeera news crew who were covering VP candidate Sarah Palin over for dinner on election night 2008. So, they've already been in this American's home.

      Nice crew.

      Helped do the dishes.

      Nobody mentioned Israel.....

  • Hagel's purported rivals for Defense job, Flournoy and Carter, are neocon-friendly militarists
    • Philip Munger January 1, 2013 at 3:28 pm

      I read some articles about or by Ashton Carter and Michele Flournoy before the Holidays. They are both highly intelligent and highly unimaginative. Flournoy is so "inside-the-box" she's probably trapped in its labyrinth. Carter's harder to read than Flournoy, but both would be heartily welcomed by the Militant Zionist Expansion Lobby.

  • With conventional wisdom solidifying behind Hagel, will Obama finally declare on 'Meet the Press?'
    • Philip Munger December 29, 2012 at 1:59 pm

      BTW, good to see Elizabeth Drew continuing to write such great analysis of DC affairs.

    • Philip Munger December 29, 2012 at 1:58 pm

      I've read all the articles Phil W. cites here. This is a defining moment for Obama's second term. I give Hagel a one in three chance of being the SecDef nominee. It seems more likely that he will nominate Michele Flournoy, and proclaim how momentous it is for a woman to serve in this capacity.

  • In 'Dissent' debate, Walzer hints that leftists who focus on Israel are anti-Semitic
    • Philip Munger December 17, 2012 at 1:10 pm with 13 replies

      My reply to Waltzer re "I Googled “Presbyterians and China,” looking for some protest against the settlement of Han Chinese in Tibet."

      Jesus didn't get baptized in the Yangtze River. It was the Jordan.

      Jesus didn't heal a blind man in Shanghai. It was in Bethsaida.

      Jesus didn't begin his ministry in Tianjin. He began it in Capernaum.

      Jesus didn't raise the dead in Nanjing. He did it in Nain.

      Jesus didn't raise Lazarus in Beijing. He did it in Bethany.

      Jesus wasn't tried and crucified in Shanghai. It happened in Jerusalem.

      Jesus didn't have his transfiguration on Mt. Kailas. It happened on Mt. Tabor.

      Why doesn't Waltzer understand the centrality of this to the Presbyterian faith, or other Christian creeds?

      Perhaps he is anti-Christian?

  • UN call on Israel to open its nuclear program is opposed by US
  • Joseph and Mary can't make it to Bethlehem, on Banksy's Christmas card
    • Philip Munger December 12, 2012 at 2:51 am

      Indeed it does.

      Reading the comments to this post got me to thinking of an art exhibit of art about the apartheid wall, or art put up on the wall itself. Maybe we could get the Israeli minister of overseeing cultural aspirations at the edge of the wall to let us jackhammer the best art on the wall, and place it in an exhibit in Oslo or London or Ramallah or Hebron....

    • Philip Munger December 11, 2012 at 5:50 pm

      I believe it was created before or during 2008, which was when I first saw it and posted it at my blog around this time of year. Banksi has done other Bethlehem wall art, and others have created art with similar depictions of Mary and Joseph being stymied at the wall.

      Back in 2008, when I posted the card at my blog, I first asked myself, "Is this image anti-Semitic?" The answer was "no."

      I than asked myself, "will someone consider it anti-Semitic?" The answer was "yes."

      I then asked myself "will some Hasbarist who could care less whether or not the image is anti-Semitic, accuse it of not only being anti-Semitic, but personally hurtful, maybe even hateful?" Some of the comments here echo my thought on this four years ago - "absolutely!"

  • Robert Siegel's performance at the Saban Forum
  • It's time for the media to talk about Zionism
    • Philip Munger December 4, 2012 at 11:29 am with 1 replies

      Within three days of each other:

      David Remnick:

      the Israeli political class is a full-blown train wreck.

      Philip Weiss:

      that lobby helped generate the conditions of 9/11, the Iraq War, the murders of Robert Kennedy and Rachel Corrie and Furkan Dogan, and the hysteria about Iran.

      Powerful and angry words. We're going to hear more from Mr. Remnick, who was reticent for a long time, but may feel impelled to make up for it.

      As for Phil Weiss, we'll see people like Margaret Sullivan showing more respect for and interest in his views and positions within the next nine months.

      Great essay.

  • 'America and Israel are in it together,' Clinton declares-- and nary a word about settlements
    • Philip Munger December 3, 2012 at 4:41 pm with 2 replies

      Clinton won’t have much of a chance in 2016. She’s too old

      --- Driving into town to go to a concert Saturday, the four of us talked about Clinton's 2016 chances. That's pretty much what I said too. I added that people are getting tired of the Clintons, even though Bill's 2012 Democratic Party Convention speech showed he's still got a spark or three of demonic life left.

      The questions went on to "who will be the most likely 2016 Democratic Party prez contenders, then?" I suggested Rahm Emanuel, as he's got the best operating money machine, even better than that of the Clintons.

      Anyone who hasn't read David Remnick's New Yorker piece on the forum should. Philip W. links to it above, in his update.

  • 'NYT' predictably comes under attack for reporting Israel targeted journalists in Gaza
  • Winona LaDuke: 'We can't talk about Israel because we are Israel'
    • Philip Munger November 22, 2012 at 2:33 am with 1 replies

      I turned Winona LaDuke's facebook post into a poem, and dedicated it to you, American.

      link to my.firedoglake.com

    • Philip Munger November 22, 2012 at 1:32 am

      What is it that Americans gain from finacing, weaponizing and shielding frome criticism a purified Jewish State?

      Reelection to the presidency, US house or senate. A paycheck for a few in the arms, security or real estate scam industries. Past that - zilch.

    • Philip Munger November 21, 2012 at 10:33 pm

      Sorry to bother you on a day on which you appear to be so unhinged, my friend.

    • Philip Munger November 21, 2012 at 4:47 pm with 4 replies

      I'll take your bait, American.

      I've been following and writing about Ms. LaDuke for a long, long time. Most recently, I wrote an article comparing her stance on some vital issues to Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog:

      link to my.firedoglake.com

      LaDuke's view of dispossession of indigenous cultures doesn't isolate now from the 19th century. It is an account of an ongoing continuum. Find out what she is actually doing right now before you trash her statement as "crap."

      She does not view the assaults on Palestinians as being independent of similar assaults over a host of issues, resources, religious ideologies, ethnic/tribal competitions or national borders.

      I've learned a fair amount from her activities and writings over the years, as have many or my Alaska Native colleagues dealing with cultural, climate change and resource development/ownership issues in Alaska and NW Canada. Being part (a smidgeon) Comanche, I feel some solidarity, but the planet's survival transcends tribe.

      Ms. LaDuke and I both view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as less important than its centrality in the mix that keeps us accepting the degradation and distraction resulting from fascination over wars. And the issues the wars distract us from are far more important than the totality of the deaths, injuries and damage they cause:

      1. The people who we killed (including many of my Vietnam War buddies who died slow agonizing deaths) in our Agent Orange campaigns are dead, but the Agent Orange is still there, silently killing.

      2. The people the Israelis killed in the 2006 Hezbollah War in Lebanon are dead, but the effects of the gratuitous Jiyah Power Station oil spill into the Mediterranean continue to stifle life over hundreds of thousands of square miles of the eastern Med.

      3. Deformed babies in the thousands will continue to be born into the next few centuries in areas where depleted uranium and similar very toxic weapons have been or are being used.

      4. Paraphrasing from your comment, "I could go on and on, but it would take too long. Maybe someone else will feel like spending time on it."

      The most compelling and threatening issues facing mankind are global, not national or tribal:

      1. Vulnerability of aging reactors and their growing spent fuel pools to a host of increasing dangers: plate tectonic changes, rising waters at cooling sources, larger storm surges from climate change, or sabotage.

      2. Other nuclear waste problems (Hanford, Savannah River, several places in the former USSR and China), and nuclear weapon safeguards that are inadequate and aging.

      3. Degradation of soil and water resources through wasteful agricultural practices worldwide.

      4. Global warming itself.

      LaDuke is intensely tuned into that. She creates metaphors that transcend the tribal, while simultaneously defending and promulgating what wisdom she has gained from her heritage.

  • Israeli hasbara cartoon features white man fighting jungle animals
  • The light doesn't get much greener than this: Obama admin gives Israel the go ahead to escalate in Gaza
    • Philip Munger November 18, 2012 at 4:58 pm with 1 replies

      There's some food for thought in your comment @ 1:54, Denis. Thanks.

      As neo-liberal as Obama is, I can't imagine he has forgotten all the slights, minor or major, delivered to him and his administration by Natanyahu over the past years. They began with the highly embarrassing treatment of VP Biden when Biden visited Israel in March 2009, and Netanyahu's administration announced a huge expansion of settlements right before their scheduled meeting, and went on constantly, right down to Netanyahu's appearance in pro-Romney campaign ads last month. Obama has been kicked in the nuts by Netanyahu so many times and so hard over the past three years, I'm surprised his voice hasn't gone up an octave. Can't imagine this sits well with the president. At all.

      Obama is going to be very busy, though, setting up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, selling out so-called entitlements, pushing to get the US to surpass Saudi energy production on his watch, and - if he can garner the support - find a way to scam marketization of carbon taxes and carbon sequestration programs into the next big Wall Street bubble. To do this, he will need help from a lot of ardent Zionists in powerful places.

  • Battle within the Presbyterian church over stance on US aid to Israel
    • Philip Munger November 10, 2012 at 5:07 pm

      I visited the Contact Us page at PFMEP's web page. Consequently, I've contacted them:

      Dear Mr. Green,

      I am interested in finding out more about PFMEP. Perhaps you or someone else in your organization may be of assistance.

      Your web site's "Who We Are" page describes your organization as "We are clergy, elders, deacons and members of the Presbyterian community."

      It goes on to state"Presbyterians for Middle East Peace is led by a steering committee consisting of the following Presbyterians: Rev. Dr. Bill Harter, Rev. Dr. John Wimberly, Elder Gary J. Green, James Roberts, and Elder George Douglas."

      Does your organization receive funding from Presbyterian sources solely?

      Is PFMEP a non-profit corporation? If so, what kind?

      What is your annual budget?

      Do you regularly or periodically communicate with other Christian organizations? If so, which ones?

      Do you regularly communicate with non Presbyterian religious or interfaith organizations? If so, which ones?

      Warmest regards, in our mutual hope for Middle East peace,

      Philip Munger

  • Obama's victory highlights a bad night for the Jewish right
    • Philip Munger November 8, 2012 at 8:50 am

      Sorry I wasn't more clear. I thought the text below explained why Holder and Emanuel appalled me.

    • Philip Munger November 7, 2012 at 5:28 pm with 3 replies

      Back in late 2008, when Obama announced key picks for his cabinet, I was disappointed, except for his picks of Eric Holder for AG, and Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff. I was appalled. I had been watching Holder through the lens of his attorney role in Latin American labor rights, and watching Emanuel through the lens of my friendship with Howie Klein from Down With Tyranny, who had despised Emanuel since the 90s and NAFTA.

      Those picks left little doubt that Obama would quickly abandon his base and reach for a neo-Clintonian, neo-liberal administration. The way he let fine people like Elizabeth Warren dangle, twisting in the wind, and encouraged Emanuel to berate and belittle progressives in the party underscored this.

      By early December, we'll know a lot more than we do now, as the new 2nd term positions get announced. Obama's staff must be putting some thought into taking back the House in 2014. Howie Klein has been critical of DCCC support for neo-lib candidates at the expense of party progressives. In Klein's view, Steve Israel, the current chair of the DCCC was a big loser in Tuesday's House results. If there is pressure from Obama to purge Israel and his ilk from the DCCC, it will be a sign that the administration is getting more realistic about the new demography of the Democratic Party, and more willing to gather progressives back into the post-election fold.

      I'm not optimistic.

  • Netanyahu on election eve: Approves 1,200 new settlement homes while promising Israel won't wait for US to attack Iran
  • 'This is travesty of American criminal justice': Supreme Court denies Holy Land Five appeal
    • Philip Munger October 29, 2012 at 1:44 pm

      This from Allison's October 28th article:

      During the 2008 trial, for the first time in a U.S. criminal court "secret evidence" was used by an anonymous source. A so-called Israeli intelligence expert testified under a pseudonym and said that the defendants had ties to Hamas. How did "Avi," the Israeli intelligence officer, prove a "terror" affiliation? Elashi told me, while on the stand Avi said he "could smell Hamas."

      Attorney Michael Ratner says that Avi's testimony violated the defendent's sixth amendment right to face their accuser. This "screams to be heard by the Supreme Court and be reversed." Relying on intelligence from a foreign country also reflects a troublesome sharing of intelligence between nations. If the Supreme Court decides to uphold the convictions it will mean that in future terror cases due process will be abandoned for an Israeli military court style system, which regularly imprisons Palestinians on secret evidence.

      emphases added.

      1) There was certainly at least one important constitutional issue in this case. Why did they avoid it?

      2) This opens some floodgates, does it not?

      3) Does "Avi" get his bonus now?

  • 'NYT' op-ed equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism relied on Nasrallah quote that is in all likelihood a fabrication
  • Holy Land Five appeal could set precedent on using 'secret evidence' in U.S. courts
    • Philip Munger October 28, 2012 at 4:36 pm

      We will look back on this period, not just the Holy Land Five, but the cases from the NYPD, down here with the Third Jihad, all they way to drone killings in Pakistan, we will look on this as probably one of the darkest, if not the darkest, periods of our history.

      I wish I could be as optimistic as Michael Ratner. Things are going to get far worse, and probably by the end of this decade. We'll be seeing more Fukushimas and such, probably one every seven to ten years. Nuclear storage facilities like spent fuel pools and tank storage are degrading far faster than agencies are either able or willing to deal with rationally.

      We'll be seeing far, far more erosion around coastlines, and destruction of trillions of dollars in coastal infrastructure. The dead zones in the oceans are growing larger faster. Ocean acidification is stripping the seas of life even faster than the giant offshore trawlers are.

      So many cans being kicked down the road it will become impossible to drive on it.

      I could go on for pages, but won't. As serious as this case certainly is, these encroachments on our civil liberties will ramp up more from resistance to financial, environmental, industrial and nuclear meltdowns than they will from cases like that of the Holy Land five.

  • 'Exodus' propaganda even converted Justin Raimondo (but now the dream is dead)
    • Philip Munger October 27, 2012 at 1:51 pm

      Two versions of the Theme from Exodus:

      This one may be the silliest, flashiest rendition of all time - by British flash pianist Wes Winters, in his Las Vegas "Tribute to Liberace."

      link to youtube.com

      And Nina Paley's use of the theme with its words (added later, by Pat Boone, and sung here by Andy Williams) was introduced to the world just over three weeks ago, to go along with her brilliant animated history lesson - "This Land is Mine." It is already a classic:

      link to youtube.com

      I was in Junior High School when the movie and its music came out. It seemed like every junior high school or high school band or orchestra in the county played the theme in one version or another for the next three years. That and the Procession of the Charioteers from Ben Hur.

  • Israeli Navy used tasers and beat passengers aboard the Ship to Gaza
    • Philip Munger October 23, 2012 at 9:14 am

      BTW, Dror Feiler, one of the Swedes still being held, has been in the sights of the Israelis now for almost a decade. He's a former Israeli, having denounced his citizenship long ago. He is one of the top organizers of this one-boat flotilla, having started the organization to sponsor the boat, in Turku, Finland.

      Sweden has still not received an explanation from the Israeli authorities why one of the Swedes on the Estelle has been separated from the others. The Ship to Gaza organisation says that activist Dror Feiler is to be charged, as an Israeli citizen, with aiding the enemy.
      The Swedish foreign ministry says that Feiler has only Swedish citizenship. He was born in Israel but that citizenship was rescinded in 1983 when he became a Swedish citizen. Israel has confirmed this status to the Swedish foreign ministry.

      link to sverigesradio.se

      Feiler and his wife created an art work back in February 2004, that so incensed the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, he attempted to destroy the art, and saw himself being thrown out of a building, almost thrown out of Sweden:

      Israel's ambassador to Sweden was kicked out of Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities after he destroyed an artwork featuring a picture of a Palestinian suicide bomber, news reports said.

      The incident, widely reported in the Swedish media, occurred at the opening on Friday of the "Making Differences" exhibit, part of an upcoming international conference on genocide hosted by the Swedish Government and in which Israel is scheduled to participate.

      "I was really looking forward to seeing what the artists had done. Instead, I was met by a picture of a smiling suicide bomber, the woman who killed 21 people in Haifa a few months ago," ambassador Zvi Mazel told Swedish news agency TT.

      The art installation, located in the museum's courtyard, featured a fountain filled with red water, designed to look like blood.

      A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and on it was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis.

      "For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims. As ambassador to Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality," Mr Mazel said.

      Museum director Kristian Berg said the ambassador went berserk when he saw the piece.

      "He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," he told TT.

      One of the two artists who created the work, Dror Feiler, was to perform a piece of music but refused to do so as long as the ambassador remained at the scene.

      "Ultimately we had to escort the ambassador out of the museum," Mr Berg said, adding that he did not consider the artwork to be a provocation.

      "It is rather an invitation to think about why such things happen in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said.

      Museum artistic director Thomas Nordanstad said he had given the artists the go-ahead to create the artwork, and had "hoped it would lead to an artistic dialogue".

      link to medialens.org

      more on the work of art and the incident:

      link to en.wikipedia.org

      I included a section on this incident in a speech in April 2004 that also discussed Israeli over-reaction to other art works at that time.

    • Philip Munger October 22, 2012 at 5:55 pm with 3 replies

      the traditional manner of dealing with blockade runners

      Don't you mean "unarmed blockade runners"? The Israelis were very aware these people were completely unarmed and had been thoroughly trained in passive, non-violent defense tactics. As was the entire fucking rest of the world who was paying attention.

      Tasers kill hundreds per year (up from 70 in 2004, and 150 between 2001 and 2003). They also cause other problems for those upon whom they have been inflicted.

      I realize their over-reaction was similar to how a lot of American cops deal with non-violent confrontations, but that doesn't make any of this crappy conduct defensible. Or do you think it does?

    • Philip Munger October 22, 2012 at 5:19 pm

      "A Greek MP was beaten by Shabak Security Service interrogators"

      Obviously, MP Evangelis was being beaten by Shabak for the crime of delegitimization. To criticize these practitioners of purity of arms for the kindly administered beating(s), most likely delivered between generous offers of cookies and hot chocolate (I DO hope he was billed for the food!), certainly qualifies for the "a-S" word. /s

      What about the other EU legislators? Was he singled out?

  • US professors organization solicits articles with argument for endorsing BDS campaign
  • Jewish establishment pulls out of interfaith dialogue, threatens Congressional investigation of 'delegitimizers' over Christian letter
    • Philip Munger October 18, 2012 at 2:50 am

      Actually, it is AP International, reprinted at The Guardian. The author is Rachel Zoll, "Religion Writer" for AP. Anyone know anything about her?

      I wrote about the collapse of next week's forum on Monday at firedoglake, noting that it was interesting the JTA, which usually keeps up on all aspects of a developing story before publishing, neglected to write that the Rabbinical Council of JVP had issued a statement of support for the Christian clerics, at the JVP RC's blog. It has been over 40 hours since the JTA story was published and they haven't revised or updated it to include that important info.

      link to my.firedoglake.com

  • Song critical of the IDF goes viral after being banned by Israeli Army Radio
    • Philip Munger October 17, 2012 at 6:49 pm with 1 replies

      Ben-Ami predicts the song will be legendary and all we need to do is be patient.

      It is a powerful ballad, both musically and poetically. The evolving chorus and harmonization in minor thirds are haunting. Some of the post-production editing with electronic instruments detracts, but otherwise this is a vibrant example of what is very good in current antiwar art.

      The response to it evokes images of people banning the Dixie Chicks, the ongoing pressures against Roger Waters since he began advocating BDS in 2011, and the seeming disappearance of Invincible since she created People Not Places.

  • J Street sells its soul, completes evolution to AIPAC lite
    • Philip Munger October 14, 2012 at 10:02 pm

      I think Sen. Mark Begich, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young, Alaska's congressional delegation, fly back and forth between their constituency and DC less than does Netanyahu.

  • Evangelical Lutheran Church calls for US inquest into human rights violations in Israel, and some Jewish groups are outraged
    • Philip Munger October 10, 2012 at 3:54 pm with 1 replies

      1. I was baptized and confirmed into the Christian faith in the American Lutheran Church, which became the major component of the ELCA when Lutheran branches united in 1988. Although I'm no longer a Christian, reading the response by the JCPA and AJC disturbs me in a way that surprises me. It somehow feels personal, even though I'm no longer affiliated with the body being attacked.

      2. Checking for news articles on this on the web (by googling news for "ELCA military aid to Israel"), I'm surprised that an action taken last Friday by such a large Christian group hasn't garnered more coverage.

  • Free Gaza Movement Twitter controversy leads Jewish Voice for Peace to distance itself from group
    • Philip Munger October 8, 2012 at 7:24 pm

      Im Wald von Katyn was just one of many propaganda efforts by the Nazis made between their discovery of the major burial site near Katyn, and their evacuation later in 1943, as the Soviets advanced rapidly in the post-Kursk offensives. Polish railroad workers, semi-enslaved by the Nazis first discovered the site in early 1943, and Nazi intelligence found out about it soon afterward.

      The Soviets had been lying to Poles since the Nazi invasion about why so many Polish officers were unaccounted for. When the Nazis tried to turn the discovery to their advantage, the Soviet government denied everything, making up a series of easily disprovable stories. These efforts and the realization that the Soviets had in fact murdered tens of thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940, led to the Soviet government breaking off diplomatic relationship with the London Poles (the Polish government in exile, recognized by the UK and USA).

      Among the executioners there may have been some Soviet Jews, but there may not have been, and any group claiming that Soviet Jews had a big role in the executions is lying.

      There was a considerable number of Polish Jewish officers and intellectuals among those murdered by the Soviets at Katyn, and at other 1940 and 1941 liquidation sites where Poles were killed, such as Kharkiv.

      Coverage in 1943 of the discovery, by the Western press in Moscow, is throughly accounted for in Alexander Werth's Russia at War, in which he describes the lame ways the Soviets tried to spin their crimes, while at the same time seeking to control the narrative on just who and what the Polish government in exile really was. A fascinating read.

      I looked at the 8-minute clip from the movie available on Youtube last winter, when I was writing an essay on Shostakovich's 13th Symphony, which is partly about another massacre on Soviet soil during World War II - Babi Yar, outside of Kiev. It is a crude, ugly film, but it has a lot of historical value in context.

  • Tel Aviv and the failure of the Zionist dream
    • Philip Munger October 3, 2012 at 3:40 am

      I've felt that way about her work here for a long time. I'd like to see an MW Tel Aviv team of Allison and Max Blumenthal, with Phan Nguyen as their editor and overall chief, delivering important articles here and elsewhere.

      Good writing, Allison.

  • Debbie Netanyahu Schultz
    • Philip Munger October 1, 2012 at 12:52 pm

      We could start by asking Members what they’ve pledged to AIPAC and publishing those for all to see...

      Each candidate for US House or Senate gets a questionnaire from AIPAC. It is fairly detailed. From your answers, they decide how to deal with you.

  • In front of global audience, Netanyahu draws his red line (on his ridiculous bomb cartoon)
  • 4 arrested for 'correcting... poisonous ad'
    • Philip Munger September 27, 2012 at 12:15 am

      Many activists either grouped together or individually have stickered, defaced and otherwise physically altered these ads because it’s repellent to have such overt bigotry anywhere, no less a public venue like the NYC subway system, go unchallenged.

      That's good to know, Sherry.

      Regarding the discussion above re BDS vs. total boycott:

      A year and a half ago, I was against BDS. That changed early last winter, and I now support it fully. I'll probably come around to total boycott within the next year, unless something unlikely happens - a reduction (as opposed to rapid growth) of overt racism in Israel itself.

  • 'Savage' NY subway ads get a make-over-- revealing their true character
  • A young Israeli woman gets her picture taken with African 'animals'
    • Philip Munger September 22, 2012 at 2:45 pm

      This lady is even nuttier than what the picture and the made-up names for the refugees indicate. She's apparently a big fan of Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin.

      Max Blumenthal tweeted a link last night to an article by Ami Kaufman at +972, about how this young woman's image has gone viral on facebook, in photoshop art:

      link to 972mag.com

  • Florida election theatrics: Netanyahu fearmongering on the campaign trail
    • Philip Munger September 21, 2012 at 12:17 am with 1 replies

      sort of a response to lysias directly above:

      I wrote a diary about the Florida Netanyahu ads for firedoglake yesterday:

      Foreign Spy to Air Pro-Romney Ads in Florida

      link to my.firedoglake.com

      It never got front-paged, but stayed on the recommended list for over 24 hours.

      It includes a WANTED poster I created for Netanyahu, based on the recently released FBI files on his espionage activities against the USA when he was younger.

      Here's a link to the poster at flickr. Feel free to copy and post the WANTED poster on blogs, walls, telephone poles or on Pam Geller bus signs:

      link to flickr.com

  • Maureen Dowd accuses the neocons of fomenting war -- and is promptly tarred as an anti-Semite
    • Philip Munger September 19, 2012 at 3:37 am with 3 replies

      I disagree.

      I've been watching Mr. Weiss' odyssey since 2005. He has shown marked courage, and has written about threats, his responses, actions against him, and what he learned from those events in his growth as a journalist, writer and commentator. Nobody has been able to take him down, even if he has been taken down a notch for his honesty when he has had to endure scenarios in which Zionists could do that to him.

      This is an excellent article on the pushback against the accusations being flung at Dowd. And the comments to it add to its importance.

      I'm glad to see tie-ins between Securing the Realm, PNAC and the Iraq invasion. And the well chosen comments made over the years by mostly Jewish neocons who reinforce what it was that Dowd wrote this past weekend.

      Others have done this.

      I tied together Securing the Realm, PNAC Doug Feith's Office of Special Plans and other elements that brought us into Iraq at Israel's behest in a speech and in articles almost nine years ago. There was and is pushback, but I'm still here.

      So will be Phil. And the rest of the brave crew here.

      Tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.

      And, watching Mondoweiss evolve since its inception, I can say next year with more influence than ever.

  • Romney brags he's got Netanyahu's campaign consultants (and he'll shoot you before telling their secrets)
    • Philip Munger September 18, 2012 at 1:16 am with 1 replies

      we have ideas about what we do over the course of the campaign. I'd tell them to you, but I'd have to shoot you.

      Creepy.

      Not that Mitt could be much of a shot, but we need to realize that the only way Mitt might win by now is if Obama gets taken out. And Seamus probably would be unwilling to do it. Seamus does not consider Obama to be an existential threat.

      Things like this - "shoot you" - are making the 2008 McCain-Palin hatefest seem simply improv. It will get worse as Mitt commits more major errors.

  • Netanyahu's touchdown: David Gregory interviews 'the leader of the Jewish people' without talking Palestine
    • Philip Munger September 17, 2012 at 3:29 am

      And that is the prime example of how fucking damnable all this attention to that creep is, coming here for his first visit since his treachery regarding stealing nuclear secrets and materials has been revealed.

      He committed major espionage against the USA, and the operation he was part of left a superfund nuclear contamination site behind them in Pennsylvania.

      Will he pass his whole visit here without anyone bringing it to his face? What slithering slimeballs our MSM talking heads are. When it comes to their not confronting this guy on his espionage, they truly are Israel-Firsters.

      This may be the first time I've used that term.

  • Coptic Christian leader of organization that produced anti-Muslim film spoke at Pamela Geller's anti-mosque rally
    • Philip Munger September 13, 2012 at 2:52 pm

      ‘too many people donating impossible to list’ or something like that

      --- let's hope we get more detail on the funding of this operation than that.

      You have the money for the initial concept, the money for production (including scale pay for actors, techs, etc.), the production, editing and post-production costs, the trailer costs, and whatever. There seems to have been a year-long dormant period between filming in August, 2011, and posting of the English and Arabic language versions recently. So there are a lot of places where money has been dropped over about an 18-month period.

      Granted, this thing makes an Ed Wood movie look like Cecille B. DeMille, but there is a long money trail, if not very deep.

  • Michael Moore says Palestinians have gotten a 'raw deal'
    • Philip Munger September 11, 2012 at 10:43 am with 2 replies

      Moore's 2003 book, "Dude, Where's My Country," published soon after Rachel Corrie was killed, was dedicated to her. He commented on the recent Corrie civil suit verdict. He attended the US premiere of My Name Is Rachel Corrie, being photographed afterward with Megan Dodds, who played Corrie in the monodrama.

      link to broadway.com

      His criticism of Israel over the years has always been understated, yet present.

  • NPR's Bob Garfield says a listener who senses pro-Israel bias has 'a receiver in his dental fillings'
    • Philip Munger September 9, 2012 at 8:44 pm with 2 replies

      On the Media started out fairly cutting edge. They had to attenuate that to survive. This is just one of many issues on which they have become less cutting, more, uh, NPR-ish.

      NPR hasn't been that far off from the legacy MSM since August 1990, when Saddam was enticed by our State Department into entering Kuwait, because he had been told it was an Arab-Arab issue. In regard to the wars' legacy, they HAVE covered care of American vets better than any other high listenership outlet.

      When is the last time NPR seriously covered the failed war on drugs in a multi-segment series? Or the burgeoning initiatives in so many states on medical marijuana or pot decriminalization? Or on the billions being raked in annually by privatized correctional facilities, and how that works in the lobbying world?

      Listening to Garfield tell the guy to "scram" was creepy.

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