Mr President your mike is still on!
Bush Curses Hezbollah [Syria] During G8 Luncheon
the President and the Prime Minister are in Russia eating brie, discussing geopolitics, leaving their mics open, and whatnot…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 17 2006 17:55 utc | 3

more details in the NYT version
Awww. On breaks from turning the world to shit, they buy each other sweaters. That is so cute.
This was an amusing/disturbing footnote to a big news day, but now CNN has it as the top story.
Oh yeah, there was a tsunami and some people died…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 17 2006 18:16 utc | 5

I often see on various posts, not only on MoA, but other places also, that the U.S. gives about equal aid to Egypt and Israel.
I don’t believe this on its face, plus I understand that many “special considerations” are given to Israel, such as money is first to be received, loans are sometimes forgiven (not counted as aid), often no strings attached to the aid to Israel, $/capita, and so on and so on.
I don’t have any figures or official government websites to back up my suspicions. Is there any link that would help me better understand the situation or confirm what is really going on? Just asking.

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 17 2006 18:39 utc | 7

Regarding post 3, ABC News headline:
Not using a modern or subjective type wikipedia definition, but a classical definiton of cursing is damming something. I always understood using the word “shit” as vulgar, but not cursing.
Just wondering why ABC used this inference?

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 17 2006 18:49 utc | 9

Rick, I wanted to comment on someone saying that Egypt receives as much US aid as Israel.
A general accounting is very difficult, because US aid to Israel is dressed up in all kinds of fancy ways… Also mainstream media publish complete nonsense, often not even in the correct numerical ball park. Its a hard topic to argue, and I don’t propose to, except to say that any serious article on the topic will point out that ‘official’ aid to Egypt is much smaller than that to Israel. 2/3 is a good rule of thumb. The official figures for many years conform.
The two situations are not comparable.
Aid to Egypt serves to keep it servile and quiet. It is more or less straight aid, free cash for the rulers, who are scared to loose it. It might even be seen as a ‘peace payment’. (footnotes skipped..) The spending is overseen and ‘controlled.’
To Israel..
Private charities, no tax paid on them in the US.
US aid to Israel, in a way, is internal to the US: money donated in the US to promote Zionist or pro-Israel candidates, in the US itself. That is money well spent (arguably it is not from the tax payer’s pocket.)
Aid to Israel is octopus – like, invading every single sector – military; industrial, manufacturing, commercial in general; loans, debt relief, loan repayment, housing loans; medical, etc. Also, afaik, the US does not require Israel to buy US goods in return for aid, as it does for others, costing jobs in the US and requires some Gvmt. agenices to buy Israeli, though I am not sure how that works (or if it is true.) They also send Israeli contractors to work on – other gifts, loans, projects. The trade agreement with Jordan means that “made in Israel” products sold in the US …are made in Jordan. And so on… I’m not aware of attempts to seriously unwind this tangled snarl… (The Israeli elites who must have pretty good idea.)
(I don’t have expert knowledge, this is just from my rather desultory reading.)

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 17 2006 18:51 utc | 11

the peacock rpt: As Hezbollah Rains Rockets on Israel, DoD Steps Up Plans to Upgrade Israeli Air Force Bases

The U.S. Dept. of Defense this past week elevated its plans to help modernize several Israeli Air Force bases, where the construction of new facilities and the expansion of runways and other aerospace infrastructure will accommodate Israel’s growing inventory of fighter jets.
…
artin-produced Sufa (“Storm”) and Suefa (“Thunderstorm”) F-16I jets — initially entailed a projected $10 million infrastructure investment into Ramon Air Force Base (AFB), (about 50 kilometers south of Beer-Sheba), Palmachim AFB (15 km south of Tel-Aviv) and Hazerim AFB (5 km west of Beer-Sheba). DoD also planned to facilitate a separate $10 million package for Nevatim AFB, located about 25 km east of Beer-Sheba.
TPR has learned that the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on July 13 added an additional endeavor to the SUFA 4 project, namely the construction of laboratories and “clean rooms,” which typically are used for microelectronics production and maintenance, within an unidentified, 10-story facility in Givayatim, Israel. The addition of this segment increased the projected total of SUFA-4 to $25 million, not including the $10 million upgrade at Nevatim AFB.
…
With the additional 102 new F-16Is, Israel will operate a total of 362 F-16s – the largest fleet of F-16s in the world outside of the United States Air Force.”

also from TPR: Contractor Gets Millions for Radio, TV, Leaflet PSYOPS Technology Project

A $100 million contract to support psychological operations (PSYOPS) that U.S. Special Forces carry out internationally via aerial leafleting and radio and TV broadcasts has been awarded to CACI International, a Virginia-based vendor for Defense and Homeland Security IT services. CACI will provide up to four years of PSYOPS technology- and other electronic systems-assistance to the U.S. Navy Air Warfare Center, whose Special Communications Requirements (SCR) Division is tasked with designing and maintaining federal systems for C4ISR – command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Although the Navy and the Pentagon publicly earlier this week began spinning the award by emphasizing the vague provision of C4ISR services to the military, a closer inspection of related contracting documents reveals an expanded list of possible recipients of the SCR unit’s work, including the White House Communications Agency, the FBI, and “other federal agencies” that the documents did not identify.

on a related not, perhaps…?
wapo: The Bold Outlines Of a Plot: Adapted as a Comic Book, The 9/11 Commission Report Hits Home Anew

If the mood on the plane that crashed into the side of the Pentagon, American Airlines Flight 77, could have been a color, it would have been a soft, translucent tan, according to a comic book about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Yes, that’s right, a comic about the attacks is set for publication late next month.
Industry veterans Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón have collaborated to produce “The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation,” which is being published by Hill and Wang, the nonfiction imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The book condenses the nearly 600-page federal report released by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States to fewer than 150 pages, and the creators say they hope their book will help attract young readers and others who might be overwhelmed by the original document.

and as’ad abukhalil’s angry arab news service has been speaking truth w/ precision lately, taking on the media, the nation, robert fisk, and even (gulp) amy goodman (on this morning’s democracynow)

Posted by: b real | Jul 17 2006 18:54 utc | 13

US approves annual aid to Israel – News from Israel, Ynetnews
Aid to Israel is Out of Hand

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 17 2006 18:59 utc | 15

just witnessed einstein being interviewed by an ape on bbc
saeb erekat tried his level best to speak to some kind of animal from the bbc that kept on bleating talkingpoints direct from whitehouse & no 10
at one point it becomes clear that under the strain of events saeb was weeping – not that the ape would notice – & declared frankly that in his experience as a negotiator there never has been a worse moment
where can we return to? he sd
i am inflicting a level of cruelty on myself by watching this sea of shit – without exception their commentators are hacks, jackalls & worms
& the dumb equation of a few hezbollah roman candles with the force that the i d f is bringing to bear is ridiculously cruel

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 17 2006 19:06 utc | 17

Some of the things I have read – all net, mixed bag, different kinds of sources:
General Offical documents are interesting:
CRS report for Congress: Foreign Aid (2004) – **PDF**
this site is a standard (many links to many docs, including official):
Wremea.com
see this article for example
Some ‘numbers’ from the Jewish virtual Library
Christian Science Monitor, general
Palestine Monitor, Fact sheets
Zunes

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 17 2006 19:17 utc | 19

Uncle $cam, is the comparison based on per-capita, or is it just a flat amount? Egypt’s population is over 70,000,000 and Israel’s only 6,000,000 (are they including Gaza and the West Bank is that six million, Palestinians et al, as well?)
Even if they were getting the same flat amount, Israel is technically getting ten times what Egypt gets.

Posted by: Ensley | Jul 17 2006 19:18 utc | 21

It is always tabulated as a flat amount by the US Gov/Press.
Per capita is taboo since early on in Baby Bush first term.
And not only for Aid.

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 17 2006 19:26 utc | 23

To continue a little on the topic of aid in a personal way:
Many of the Israelis of the professional classes that I have met, both here and in Isr. have an attitude towards the US that is pitying, scornful and grasping; and I have seen some of them treat the US as a doddering Sugar Daddy, successfully.
Good Old Sam, wink wink. This attitude reminded me of a Gvmt. job I had long ago, where the workers treated the State in the same way, as they did not need to perfom and Nanny would pay all the bills, including, I am sad to say, extravagant fraudulent ones.. – a weak, wimpy, blind overseer is the idea…
A difference, though: In the case of the US, US attitudes mirror the Israeli ones, as the US paints Israel as a worthy victim, an entity deserving of all largesse (as it is in a bad position), etc. etc. Not so with the State, in my personal example, as it slowly woke and crackdown dawned, much to the agonised astonishment of the freeloaders.
The reason for the unhealthy US-Isr. symbiosis are hard to tease out. A bit like one of those old psychological tests, where free interpretation reveals more about the interpreter than the object itself!
I think the Israelis are, taking a very long term view, amongst the prime losers. (Just in case anyone should accuse me of calling “Jews” freeloaders, which I most emphatically am not.)
People in Israel are not happy – the workers in my example weren’t either.

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 17 2006 19:43 utc | 25

I went looking for the article I read about a year ago in a few major newspapers and couldn’t find it. It was about Israel being very upset because Israelis were leaving the country in record numbers to go live in Europe, America, etc. It was almost entirely members of the middle and upper classes rather than poor recent immigrants to the country. As I’ve said ad nauseum, my memory is not as good as it was even a few years ago, but I seem to remember a figure greater than 100,000 per year abandoning ship because of all the violence in both directions and the poor economy.
Maybe someone else will remember where to find it.

Posted by: Ensley | Jul 17 2006 20:04 utc | 27

What is actually happening is that the leading Israeli class is shrinking, because it is no longer ready to pay for the caprices of the government. It is no longer willing to bear the burden of the settlements and the burden of the transfer payments. But what we’re getting in the meantime is not a revolt in the streets, it’s a quiet revolt of people leaving, getting out. It’s a revolt of taking the laptop and the diskette and moving on. So if you look up and look around, you will see that the only people who are staying here are those who have no other option. The economically weak and the fundamentalists are staying. Before our eyes Israel is becoming ultra-Orthodox, nationalist and Arab. It is becoming a society that has no sense of a future, no narrative and no forces to maintain itself.

Ensley, this might help

Posted by: gmac | Jul 17 2006 21:50 utc | 29

Moral cretin and all around despicable douchebag John Bolton says when Israel murders civilians it’s not the same as when Hamas or Hezbollah murders civilians.

Posted by: ran | Jul 17 2006 23:08 utc | 31

r’giap,
I hear you. Repeat after me: tv info-tainer, newspaper stenographer, radio personality. Expecting them to behave like ‘journalists’ will only make your head hurt, and there is no point in letting them ruin your day.

Posted by: gylangirl | Jul 18 2006 0:07 utc | 33

I confess I receive aljazeera newscasts third-hand. Is AJ’s webcasting available during this war?

Posted by: gylangirl | Jul 18 2006 0:42 utc | 35

al jazeera has been available in france for some time – it is in arabic – but for the last few days it has been without sound

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 18 2006 0:55 utc | 37

Ensley #38 – the Israelis are not going to have nearly the shock as will the Saudis. Imagine a nuclear armed Jewish Arab nation ruled by theocrats and soldiers and realizing that nothing stands between them and the reconstruction of Solomon’s Empire plus oil except the tender sensibilities of Europe. Hah. They’ll realize too late that their nightmare of a secular Palestinian republic was nothing.

Posted by: citizen k | Jul 18 2006 1:57 utc | 39

“Operation Just Reward”
Think about the self-contradiction of morality those words speak by themselves in describing the Israeli operation.
Then there is this to think about as the cable tv shows spew the Iran connection to Hezbolah and Hamas day after day….
Read this.
Could this story be about Iran’s interference in Iraq as the propaganda site says, or is it just pure propaganda to further turn readers against Iran? Who is really going to get the “Just Reward”? Remember what Bush said to Putin after the jab about Iraq: “just wait”. Wait for what?
just some random thoughts…

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 18 2006 4:00 utc | 41

Two stories from England one from last week and one from this week and one wonders if by chance they could be related.
Last week’s story:
Focus: Blair isolated as police close in
and This week’s story:
No criminal charges in De Menezes shooting
Put the Bliar to the white hot poker by waving it in his face right up until the moment he ensures his old Oxford uni chum but no relation, London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair is home free.
I can’t suggest too strongly that MoA-ites clink the link and read the Sunday Times article on the Michael Levy arrest if only because it is Murdoch-ism at it’s epitome of reality bending. While really sticking to the Bliar is a crook meme it goes out of it’s way to humanise Levy and make him an innocent victim of Bliar greed.
Points to note about the Lord Levy issue are
1/ The decision to formally arrest Levy for questioning was made by Ian Bliar offsider, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, John Yates.
2/ Levy, former rock n roll promoter and very close chum, as all good bagmen are, of the Bliar was also instrumental in the whole “crank up the Global War On Terra”, all Muslims are terrorists shebang as he a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel and has been described by The Jerusalem Post as “undoubtedly the notional leader of British Jewry”. Levy has close ties with the Israeli Labour Party and maintains a home in Tel Aviv. His son, Daniel Levy has served as an assistant to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and to Knesset member Yossi Beilin. There is heaps more about Levy here if anyone wants to check it out.
Without going into some bullshit a la LaRouche, it is relevant that Bliar greed and materialism was played upon by the Israeli interests as well as amerikan ones. For a smugly pious Presbyterian such as Ian Blair using the Bliar’s corruption by zionists as a restraint on Bliar’s alacrity to push total responsibility for Jean Charles de Menezes’ murder onto the police hierarchy would have had synergy.
There has been considerable resistance from the english ‘establishment’ to cranking up the global war on terra from day one. They just couldn’t see the earning potential and certainly weren’t interested in advancing the zionist or even worse amerikan cause unless england held the reins. That was certainly not the case with the poodle Bliar as the G8 accident on purpose by the rovians reveals.
In fact the meme of the establishment about how it is that the Bliar became so entangled in by BushCo and AIPAC is put down to a dinner party hosted by Gideon Meir (Golda’s son/grandson?) in 1994 when the Bliar was getting all his ducks a row prior to getting the Labour leadership.
Also present was the soon to be Bliar trust lawyer Eldred Tabachnik. In the run up to the Iraq invasion whenever the Bliar seemed recalcitrant or about to make ‘the roadmap’ too hard, another piece of scandal about Bliar and wife Cherie’s property holdings which were in the millions and accumulated quite fast.
3/ Right through last weekend bits of the Michael Levy and the cash for royal honours and titles investigation tie in to the Bliar were being leaked:
Loan trail to No 10 revealed

Police probing the cash-for-peerages scandal have uncovered a paper trail that goes to the ‘heart of Downing Street’, according to a source close to the investigation.
Although the source would not be drawn on what was discovered, he said the evidence makes it more likely criminal charges will be brought against senior Labour figures. The police are said to have been ‘greatly surprised’ at what they have found, the source said.

There is a while to go yet as a couple more enquiries have to finish and the english police are likely to be fined for occupational health and safety breaches that occured during the incident. I’m not kidding. There is a point very early on in the surveillance and tailing of Mr de Menezes when the army ‘spotter’ had to go some distance to empty his bladder. He was the only one who could have positively identified Mr de Menezes so the police are going to be in trouble for not providing a portable toilet when surveilling terrarists.
The corruption thing will hang over the Bliar, right up until every enquiry has patted Mr de Menezes murderers on the back, then something previously unknown will surface. All Bliarites will then be cleared.
The Bliar will then be able to retire before being sacked, and the brits will finally be rid of their pariah.
That’s a best case scenario bwaahahaha poor old tony.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 18 2006 5:43 utc | 43

J’ lem police detain Al Jazeera staff for third time in 24 hours

Police detained Al Jazeera crew members three times in 24 hours, the last time being on Monday. The official cause for their brief arrests was suspicions that the crew reported the location of rocket strikes in order to assist Hezbollah. Other TV networks, including Israeli news services, filed similar reports without suffering from police intervention.

Posted by: b | Jul 18 2006 10:12 utc | 45

The “No Confidence” Movement Builds Steam
Of course the Democrats would never get behind such a movement….

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 18 2006 11:58 utc | 47

A bit under the radar but getting pretty hot: Turkey Wants Kurdish Guerrilla Crackdown

Turkey called Monday for Iraq and the United States to crack down on Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq, and issued a veiled threat to attack the rebel bases if there is no progress.
…
The guerrillas, who want autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, have killed 15 Turkish security personnel since Thursday in ambushes, roadside bombings and shootings.
“What we expect (from Iraq) is for the removal of a threat toward a neighboring country and for our ally, the United States, to support Iraq in this,” Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said.
…
The guerillas killed seven Turkish soldiers and a village guard Saturday in an attack Turkey said was launched from northern Iraq.
Two Turkish soldiers were wounded Monday near the southeastern town of Tunceli, the private Dogan news agency reported. U.S.-made Cobra helicopters pounded suspected rebel hideouts, while Turkish commandos were airlifted to strategic points along the Iraqi border.

Posted by: b | Jul 18 2006 13:17 utc | 49

For anyone interested in philosophy and Straussian influence on today’s US police a must read is this post at Prof. Balkin’s blog by Scott Horton:

Strauss looks at the fate he faces in consequence of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany. He admits that it is impossible for him as a Jew to live under their regime, since they have adopted anti-Semitism as a keynote of their rule. But while expressing abhorrence at their anti-Semitism, Strauss consciously refuses fully to repudiate Nazi fascism. To the contrary, he accepts fascism as a legitimate bearer of “the principles of the right,” and he embraces them, namely: fascism, authoritarianism and imperialism. He then proceeds to ridicule the Enlightenment values of inalienable rights, quoting the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from 1789 (though he could just as easily have quoted the American Declaration of Independence), and he quotes a passage of Virgil’s Aeneid, a passage which Carl Schmitt was also fond of quoting.

Posted by: b | Jul 18 2006 18:05 utc | 51

israeli tanks entering refugee camps in gaza tonight & the world says nothing – ufp
tshal is the new werhmacht
shame shame shame

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 18 2006 23:53 utc | 53

““We are sure that Israel is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in their operation…When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of shrapnel that hit the person killed.” Dr. al-Saqqa, Shifa hospital, Gaza; following the examination of the “completely burnt” bodies of dead Palestinians killed in Israeli air raid.

fuck them all.

Posted by: beq | Jul 19 2006 0:28 utc | 55

@ r’giap I have to admit that since about a day into the attack on Gaza I haven’t really been able to watch much TV. The English language Chinese news channel I had come to rely on, CCTV is only carrying endless incredibly interesting but somewhat irrelevant doco’s on chinese medical research.
I watched some USuk TV news last night and wrote this this crude effort of what watching it felt like this morning:
Baby-boomers may remember old black and white scenes, stills or movie, of interminable lines of people horses and handcarts being pushed along dusty roads in the middle of summer. Occasionally a me-109 or even a Stuka may appear strafing, dive-bombing harassing and terrifying the myriads of humans being who had gathered together their family unit, most cherished portable possessions and headed off into the line of others doing the same. They were trying to escape the horror their homes had become. The retreat where one goes after a days work/school/ hunting/shopping and finally relaxes with their nearest and dearest had become a death trap. At any time a bomb could descend from the sky or a jackboot appear through the door and change or end life irrevocably.
This is what is happening in Lebanon right now. Most are fleeing toward Syria in the knowledge that by the time they get there the Israeli killers could be attacking that formerly secure environ as well. So it was for the Europeans for several summers in the 1940’s. They would move further East toward the Soviet Union or West toward the Atlantic and the capitulation of the Anglo-French forces whose protection they had sought but it was to no avail. They were ultimately in just as much danger as that which they had sought to escape from but far from their home or familiar surrounds.
I was reminded of those scenes last night when watching a TV reporter/voyeur arrogantly weaving in and out of the lines of cars full of people attempting to escape North out of Beruit. This intrepid USuk reporter was asking cars jammed with families of terrified/resolute/apprehensive/determined people if they still thought Hezbollah should be firing missiles into Israel! The reporter was alternating between xtian and Islamic families asking this question and appeared genuinely surprised when the xtians were far more vehement in their condemnation of Israel and USuk for inflicting this horror upon them. Is this the level of buffoon that European in the street depends upon to get an insight into the carnage?
It occurred to me then how the history books we studied World War 2 out of would have documented the figure of an Italian reporter asking Poles if they still thought that their army’s attack on a German border post was such a good thing?
I have been watching very little of the coverage from Lebanon. Enough to get a bit of a visual image of what’s happening but the reportage has been so subjective, no subjective is too kind. . .so untrue that it leaves one feeling too angry to be able to cogitate on possible action.
AFAIK the real purpose of this footage is to inure western viewers to these sights which they are going to see plenty of this summer, and probably a few summers to come.
Imagine for a moment it were you and your family that had to pack up and git going. How many of us have the where withall to do any such thing? Remember it isn’t going to ‘just for a few days’ like some sort of camping trip. Systems are breaking down so even if you do have adequate resources in the bank or whatever getting at them is going to need a lot of luck and skill.
Even so that would only last a while, most people pretty much live from paycheck to paycheck anyhow. Sure people save and invest but how much of that is immediately accessible. The first thing that happens when a nation hits the road is that those with a surplus immediately charge more and only accept cash or barter. Credit cards cashier cheques etc are useless.
All things we use as levers to exert a measure of control on our situation have been rendered totally ineffective.
Lebanese people have been settling in NZ pretty much since northerners have been coming and the same is undoubtedly true of amerika, Brazil, Australia or any of the other Northerner colonisations of the last few hundred years. The emigrations seem to have occurred in waves, so it’s likely that Lebanese people have been the ‘meat in someone else’s’ sandwich since the 11th century xtians first decided Jerusalem was theirs.
Still it goes on

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 19 2006 2:36 utc | 57

How creepy is this?
Endgame?
End game the office Detention and Removal Strategy 2003-2012 for Homeland Security with pdf at the link.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 19 2006 3:00 utc | 59

r’gaip #56: “..the israeli government …. their enemy is everybody who does not support them”
Yeah, just like Bush “…your either with us or against us.”

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 19 2006 4:06 utc | 61

Come on Conchita.
Chill.
Some people at some times just need to kill people. And decrease the surplus population.
BTW. Heinrich Himmler and Reinhardt Heydrich did not convince me to post this.

Posted by: Thomas Malthus | Jul 19 2006 4:48 utc | 63