Open thread …
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August 8, 2006
A Fresh OT
Comments
WTC Steel Returns! Or in reality it never left.
Snip:
And you thought all the 9/11 WTC wreckage was swept up in eight months and sent to be smelted in foreign countries or secret places in our own strange land, right? And that the rest of the rubble was buried in Fresh Kills (appropriate name), Staten Island. So did I. But now it turns out last remains of the Towers are being stored in an 80,000-square-foot hangar at JFK International Airport in New York. Ain�t that a kick in the head?
The previous fact comes from the fifth paragraph of an article Fragments of Twin Towers may return to Coatesville by Jennifer Miller at DailyLocal.com. It�s a story about Coatesville, Pennsylvania, wanting to get some WTC steel �trees� for the future National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum, to be built in the city�s Lukens National Historic District. The Graystone Society is the group propelling the museum project. Well, how nice.
Scot Huston, a �direct� descendant of the Luken family, president of the Graystone Society, and Gene DiOrio, Graystone Society vice president, traveled to that JFK hangar to meet with New York Port Authority officials about bringing some of the remnants back to Coatesville. That�s even sweeter.
But how about giving some steel �trees� to some 9-11 scientists and engineers? To see if the steel is still strong or if there is any evidence of explosives on them or to test their melting points. I mean since NYPA officials are accommodating these Coatesville folks, let�s remind them there is a 9-11 Truth Movement concerned with all these little details in little ole New York City, where the tragedy occurred. And this movement lives around the nation and the world as well.
So to me, further sharing of the �trees� for forensic research seems like a modest proposal, especially in light of some of the darker purposes for which the wreckage is being shared. Trust me. Nothing�s ever simple concerning 9-11.
Warship built out of Twin Towers WreckageThats amazing that the steel is sitting in hangars at JFK. I say we test it for thermite traces ans other explosive chemicals… It all makes sense. They spread the reports that ‘all’ the steel was shipped by barge to Shanghai just so no one would bug them for it to examine for evidence.
But you know maniacal serial killers…they always want to keep a few ‘trophy’s’ of their kills as talismans.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 8 2006 6:39 utc | 1
b, we must be having technical difficulties as the last three blogs i.e. posts, are showing 0 comments when in fact there are several in them. At least from where I sit. Anybody else getting that?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 8 2006 6:49 utc | 2
Something I’ve been alluding to about Hizbollah’s continued rocket threat — reaches Howard Kurtz and Tom Ricks:
Tom Ricks, you’ve covered a number of military conflicts, including Iraq, as I just mentioned. Is civilian casualties increasingly going to be a major media issue? In conflicts where you don’t have two standing armies shooting at each other? THOMAS RICKS, REPORTER, “THE WASHINGTON POST”: I think it will be. But I think civilian casualties are also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they’re being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.
KURTZ: Hold on, you’re suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of it’s fire power, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here?
RICKS: Yes, that’s what military analysts have told me.
KURTZ: That’s an extraordinary testament to the notion that having people on your own side killed actually works to your benefit in that nobody wants to see your own citizens killed but it works to your benefit in terms of the battle of perceptions here.
RICKS: Exactly. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well.
…………………….
from CNN Reliable Sources
Posted by: anna missed | Aug 8 2006 6:51 utc | 3
So BP has reported a major spill on one of its Alaska pipelines and the nation’s main concern seems to be the effect on gasoline prices. How about the thousands of gallons of crude being dumped onto the tundra?
Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 8 2006 8:02 utc | 4
I too see “0” comments on this well-populated thread.
This editorial from today’s Haaretz is astounding in several ways, but, to me, the most striking is the line
But the IDF’s ground operations in South Lebanon – which began belatedly, hesitantly and peicemeal – are still carried out without bringing to bear Israel’s numerical advantage.
It seems that without numerical superiority the undoubted technical superiority of the Israeli armaments is not sufficient to achieve Israeli goals against a small but determined enemy force. Are we about to see the beginning of another war of attrition in Southern Lebanon?
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Aug 8 2006 9:45 utc | 6
Like many people I have been aghast and dismayed at Israel’s Apartheid Wall since it was conceived and as it was built. It has made a giant Concentration Camp of Gaza, and cut up the West Bank into smaller Concentration Camps for the Palestinians there.
The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that it illegal, stating that if such a wall were to be undertaken it must be built on “Israeli territory”, meaning inside the so-called Green Line, the 1967 borders.
At this point I think that is a good idea.
Relocate the Apartheid Wall to Israeli territory and rebuild it along the entire Israeli border, and move the “settlers” from Israel and Brooklyn behind it, not to keep the Israelis safe from their neighbors but to keep their neighbors safe from the murderous criminals that inhabit Israel.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 8 2006 13:02 utc | 7
Extension wreaks havoc upon Stryker soldiers’ lives
Much of the frustration within the unit is due to the fact that even though the situation in Baghdad had been deteriorating over a period of several months, senior leaders waited until the last possible moment to change their orders.
The soldiers “didn’t like the fact of getting almost one foot onto the plane and being told, ‘You have to go back,’ ” Stoehr said. “Had we known at least a month out, it would have been much better.”
“Even if we could have known a week earlier, it would have made a huge difference to us,” said Capt. James Vogelpoehl, a 4-14 battle captain.
Some officers also expressed confusion about why, if it was so important to keep the brigade in country and send it to Baghdad, no one in the chain of command could tell them what the mission there would be.
Some of the US forces in Iraq are racists, murderers, and rapists… but most are not. They’re being sadly abused in the worst possible way by the neocons in Washington.
The neocons are liars, murderers, war criminals… and traitors. Certainly to the Americans they’ve sent to fight and die in Iraq.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 8 2006 13:46 utc | 8
Bring Home the 172nd Brigade
Family and friends. Check it out. They’re finally expressing themselves. Their enemies are not in Iraq. They’re in Washington DC.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 8 2006 13:55 utc | 9
i consider w/suspicion the timing of the extention and escalation of troops in iraq.
the US is preparing for an escalation of aggression in the whole ME region but they don’t want to tell this to the american public or the troops.
JLF#7. absolutely
uncle, me too. i suppose b’s working on it.
Posted by: annie | Aug 8 2006 15:16 utc | 10
from #2 b, we must be having technical difficulties as the last three blogs i.e. posts, are showing 0 comments when in fact there are several in them. At least from where I sit. Anybody else getting that?
b ?
Posted by: peanut gallery | Aug 8 2006 15:20 utc | 11
“Nouri al-Maliki … “angered and pained” by US attack on Baghdad stronghold.”
Maliki’s anger exposes growing rift with US and Iraqi military
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has strongly criticised a US-Iraqi attack on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, exposing a rift with his American partners on security tactics.
Nineteen people were killed in four back-to-back bombings in the Iraqi capital yesterday, as the US staged an operation to secure Baghdad in the throes of sectarian bloodshed between Shiites and Sunnis that many fear could push the country into civil war.
Mr Maliki’s criticism followed a predawn air and ground attack in Sadr City, the stronghold of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Police said three people, including a woman and a child, were killed in the raid, which the US command said was aimed at “individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities”.
Three people were captured in the raid, the US military said.
Mr Maliki, a Shiite, said he was “very angered and pained” by the operation, warning that it could undermine his efforts towards national reconciliation.
“Reconciliation cannot go hand in hand with operations that violate the rights of citizens this way,” Mr Maliki said.”This operation used weapons that are unreasonable to detain someone – like using planes.”
He apologised to the Iraqi people for the operation and said “this won’t happen again”.
The President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also met the top US commander in Iraq, George Casey, to discuss security. “It is in no one’s interest to have a confrontation” with Mr Sadr’s movement, Mr Talabani was said to have told General Casey.
The public position taken by Mr Maliki and Mr Talabani showed serious differences between Iraqi politicians and US and Iraqi military officials on how to restore order and deal with armed groups, many of which have links to political parties.
US officials have spoken of morale problems among senior ranks of the Iraqi security services because of what they believe is insufficient political support by the civilian leadership.
Posted by: annie | Aug 8 2006 15:36 utc | 12
Lebanon government joins forces with bid to have Blair tried in Scotland for war crimes
By Neil Mackay – 08/06/06 “Sunday Herald”
– The Lebanese government is working behind the scenes to bring Tony Blair before the Scottish courts, charged with war crimes for aiding and abetting the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon.
Ali Berro, the Lebanese government’s special adviser on legal affairs, is assisting Lebanese nationals living in Scotland, and their legal team, in their attempt to take the Scottish Executive and the UK government to court for allowing US aircraft to fly “bunker-buster bombs” from America to Israel via Scottish airports.
link
That was my IF ONLY post o’ the day.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 8 2006 15:37 utc | 13
annie:
The neocon regime in Washington is going to get Maliki assassinated as a collaborator and our American enlisted men decimated, or worse.
Their braided selves will not suffer a scratch, nor a demotion, nor a loss of pension.
Although our enlisted men and women might kill some of them.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 8 2006 15:41 utc | 14
India Bans Arab TV Channels Under Pressure From Israel
Shahid Raza Burney, Arab News
BOMBAY, 6 August 2006 — In a country widely referred to as the world’s largest democracy, the Indian government has succumbed to mounting Israeli pressure and ordered a nationwide ban on the broadcast of Arab television channels.
The Indian government’s ban on Arab television stations is in complete contrast to the friendship that Arab countries imagine exists with their neighbor across the Arabian Sea. It seems the ban is a move to ensure that Indians do not get to see the atrocities that are presently being committed by Israel in Lebanon and the occupied territories.
link
and that was the WTF post o’ the day.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 8 2006 15:50 utc | 15
Take a look at economist Dean Baker’s reaction to the USA Today article (if that’s an appropriate name for a reworked Republican Party press release).
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 8 2006 16:04 utc | 16
163 Palestinians killed in Gaza in July:
[A]ccording to the principle of proportionality, it is forbidden to carry out an attack, even against a military object, with the knowledge that it is liable to cause injury to civilians that is excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated from the attack.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Aug 8 2006 16:09 utc | 17
Is it fascism yet?
C’mon kids, let’s go to Army World!.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Military Theme Park
FORT BELVOIR, Virginia (AP) — The Army is considering a proposal to allow a private developer to build a military-themed park that would include Cobra Gunship rides and bars including a “1st Division Lounge..”
Military officials said a massive entertainment and hotel complex built next to a national Army museum could draw more than 1 million people a year. But authorities in Fairfax County are objecting because of already traffic-clogged roads surrounding the proposed site.
Universal City Property Management III, of Orlando, Florida, submitted the unsolicited proposal for the theme park last year.
“You can command the latest M-1 tank, feel the rush of a paratrooper freefall, fly a Cobra Gunship or defend your B-17 as a waist gunner,” according to the proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
County officials have no authority over the Army’s decision because the site is federal property. County Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman said he thought the entertainment concept died last year and said he had no interest in turning a military museum into “Disney on Rolling Road.”
But the Army notified the county last week it is planning to move the military museum from Fort Belvoir to a site a few miles away that would be large enough for the entertainment complex.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 8 2006 16:21 utc | 18
FYI – comment count on the front screen of MoA
Typepad sayz:
“We are aware of the problem where the comment count is not updating and are working on resolving it as quickly as possible. You might want to bookmark the status site for up-to-date information on this issue: http://status.sixapart.com”
9/11 Commission Chairmen Admit to Whitewash
As both the Bush administration and its client government in Israel, with their invasions of Arab states in Iraq and Lebanon respectively, make the United States ever more hated in the Islamic world, a new book by the chairmen of the 9/11 Commission admits that the commission whitewashed the root cause of the 9/11 attacks – that same interventionist U.S. foreign policy.
Yawn…
This is a classic “limited hangout”. The Us Government knows that the American people smell a huge rat behind 9-11. Most Americans, to judge form the recent CNN poll, know there was a cover-up, so along comes an article “admitting” to a cover-up; that the attacks by Arabs were in response to US support for Israel.
But the question of whether the attacks were really carried out by Arabs was never even addressed by the 9-11 Commission. It was simply accepted as fact on Presidential order. George Bush specified that the 9-11 Commission investigate “Intelligence Errors” that allowed the attacks to happen. Examining the attacks themselves was declared off limits right from the start.
So here we have the government admitting to a little cover-up to conceal a much larger one.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 8 2006 16:41 utc | 20
Robert Pape, professor of political studies at the University of Chicago, writing this weekend gone about his research on suicide bombers – What we still don’t understand about Hizbollah (Observer, 6 August):
Researching my book, which covered all 462 suicide bombings around the globe, I had colleagues scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and biographies of the Hizbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. We were shocked to find that only eight were Islamic fundamentalists; 27 were from leftist political groups such as the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union; three were Christians, including a female secondary school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.
What these suicide attackers – and their heirs today – shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hizbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force. …
There is not the close connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism that many people think. Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist campaigns have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland.
Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organisations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective. Most often, it is a response to foreign occupation.
(emphases added)
Posted by: Dismal Science | Aug 8 2006 17:34 utc | 21
KERBLOG From Beirut [Great drawings]
Saturday, August 05, 2006
testament
it seems that this blog is censored in the united arab emirats. i received more than 10 emails assuring this. if this is true, it means that it is possible to do it on a larger scale.
two things should be done to address theses issues.
first, if every person who read this and know people in dubai or abu dabi can download ALL of the drawings and send them by emails there it would be great. you should also ask to the people to make them availbale for as much people as possible there.
second, regarding the possible shut down of this blog one day (the more it grows the more i am afraid of such a censorship), here’s what should be done in my opinion: every person who have enough place on her hard disk should download and keep ALL the drawings and texts posted on the blog. this will be useful in two ways:
1- the blog can be recreated at different addresses in different countries to avoid the censorship. i will for sure recreate it also and continue it somewhere else. but i might not have the possibility to do so with the electricity problems that are becoming worst and worst.
2- the scans you find on the blog are the only other versions of the real drawings that are made on my notebooks. if this notebook or myself or both of us disappear some day. there’ll still be a trace of it. even in low-res.
it is 2:40am in beirut and there is still eectricity.
the vultures are revolving above us.
i am going to try to sleep.
good night
more drawings, and words and bombs tomorrow.
Posted by: beq | Aug 8 2006 18:48 utc | 22
I wonder who/what is counting the votes today in that ever so exciting race between the NeoNut & the Wall Street Predator in Conn?
Speaking of U of Chicago, I heard yesterday that there was a conference there last wkend, for the last generation to pass along knowledge to the youngsters who are forming new chapters of SDS (yes, that one!) around th country…I wonder if UofC alum & Chicago resident, Bernadine Dohrn, rented the space for them!!
Posted by: jj | Aug 8 2006 19:35 utc | 24
reason number 4102768 why New Zealand is kewl….
Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 8 2006 21:24 utc | 25
A comment from Juan Cole’s site :
There’s a character named Osama something-Laden, rather famous I think, but I can’t quite recall for what. Pop producer maybe? Golfer? Anyway, this guy said in a video lecture or something that “the events affecting his soul” started when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 with US support:
“This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced.
I couldn’t forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy.
The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn’t include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard but it didn’t respond.
In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.
And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.
And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.”
Ah yes, I remember now. Doesn’t he host one of those Home and Garden Television shows?
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 8 2006 23:47 utc | 26
RE: Uncle $cam #20
Uncle, although not exactly the same tactic or circumstance, this reminds me of what brought down Dan Rather during the Bush elections. Exposing the typewritten pages he presented as forged, although the actual message of what was written may have been fairly accurate, discredited both the message and the messenger. I expect to see a lot of this in the next few months as the American public (hopefully) wakes from its slumber and the timbers start to fall around Bush and all. Especially look for these tactics if military action is promoted against Iran. The media operators have perfected propaganda to a science and they surely will need all their skills to attack the critics.
Posted by: Rick Happ | Aug 9 2006 0:15 utc | 28
Has anyone else noticed that the numbers of muslim and xtian Israeli casualties from the Hizbollah katushas appear to be quite high in relation to their demographics within the Israeli population?
Initially the reporters operating out of Israel told us that was because the Hizbollah soldiers were targeting ‘Arab’ villages, but this seems somewhat unusual given that both HB and Hamas enjoy support amongst Palestinian Israeli citizens. But there is no doubt that the rockets do fall short which would account for many of the casualties.
Thing is though that in Haifa the Palestinian Israeli casualty rate is higher than average, amongst both xtians and muslims. A report on CNN the other night reassured amerikans that this was because ‘they’ preferred not to go into shelters or ‘bunkers’. The report inferred this was further evidence of the treasonous and suicidal arabic tendencies.
Odd given that the Arabs show no such hesitation on t’other side of the border.
An Independent article on a colony of xtians in Haifa gives us an indication of exactly why the xtian and islamic citizens of Haifa are copping it worse:
“It was little more than 300 metres from the St Elias’s Church in the poor, Christian/Muslim Arab neighbourhood of Wadi Nisnas to the little garden in front of Mr Hamam’s house, in which he and Mrs Mazawi had been killed by shrapnel from the 220mm Hizbollah rocket that demolished the house next door on Sunday night. But the journey I made with Mrs Balan, 52, her 83-year-old mother, Adiba, and two other women of the neighbourhood was twice interrupted by the sirens. There are no public shelters here – a source of frequent complaints by Israeli Arab community leaders.”
Once they get injured but not killed things get a little safer, because even though Israeli hospitals aren’t available to the Palestinian stateless people, those xtians and muslims who managed to avoid the ethnic cleansing and get ‘citizenship’ of the Nazi state of Israel are allowed into the same hospitals as the jews, something that according to another Independent article the Israeli information ministry loudly proclaims:
“Right on cue yesterday, an ambulance pulled into emergency yesterday with Adela Mattar, and her son Amir, 12, and her daughter Nancy, 19, after a Katyusha direct hit on the house next to theirs in the Arab village of Fasuta.”
That’s a story? That Israeli citizens go to Israeli hospitals? The fact that wannabe Goebbels have publicised this ‘equal treatment’ tells us that they think it unusual, so what does that say about them?
Next time any low life meanly mouthed zionist prick tries to insinuate that people who advocate the destruction of the apartheid state of Israel must be racist he/she should be reminded of this obscenity.
And finally it is worth noting that these two stories written by the same journalist and published in the same newspaper on the same day tells us quite a bit about ‘balanced’ reporting.
A non-story (Israeli citizens going to Israeli hospitals) is played up and a real story (Israel doesn’t provide air raid shelters for gentile citizens) is played down.
Not that anyone will notice. In amerika most will be dribbling on about the reuters photo-journalist who ‘doctored’ his pix.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 1:13 utc | 29
Has anyone else noticed that the numbers of muslim and xtian Israeli casualties from the Hizbollah katushas appear to be quite high in relation to their demographics within the Israeli population?
Initially the reporters operating out of Israel told us that was because the Hizbollah soldiers were targeting ‘Arab’ villages, but this seems somewhat unusual given that both HB and Hamas enjoy support amongst Palestinian Israeli citizens. But there is no doubt that the rockets do fall short which would account for many of the casualties.
Thing is though that in Haifa the Palestinian Israeli casualty rate is higher than average, amongst both xtians and muslims. A report on CNN the other night reassured amerikans that this was because ‘they’ preferred not to go into shelters or ‘bunkers’. The report inferred this was further evidence of the treasonous and suicidal arabic tendencies.
Odd given that the Arabs show no such hesitation on t’other side of the border.
An Independent article on a colony of xtians in Haifa gives us an indication of exactly why the xtian and islamic citizens of Haifa are copping it worse:
“It was little more than 300 metres from the St Elias’s Church in the poor, Christian/Muslim Arab neighbourhood of Wadi Nisnas to the little garden in front of Mr Hamam’s house, in which he and Mrs Mazawi had been killed by shrapnel from the 220mm Hizbollah rocket that demolished the house next door on Sunday night. But the journey I made with Mrs Balan, 52, her 83-year-old mother, Adiba, and two other women of the neighbourhood was twice interrupted by the sirens. There are no public shelters here – a source of frequent complaints by Israeli Arab community leaders.”
Once they get injured but not killed things get a little safer, because even though Israeli hospitals aren’t available to the Palestinian stateless people, those xtians and muslims who managed to avoid the ethnic cleansing and get ‘citizenship’ of the Nazi state of Israel are allowed into the same hospitals as the jews, something that according to another Independent article the Israeli information ministry loudly proclaims:
“Right on cue yesterday, an ambulance pulled into emergency yesterday with Adela Mattar, and her son Amir, 12, and her daughter Nancy, 19, after a Katyusha direct hit on the house next to theirs in the Arab village of Fasuta.”
That’s a story? That Israeli citizens go to Israeli hospitals? The fact that wannabe Goebbels have publicised this ‘equal treatment’ tells us that they think it unusual, so what does that say about them?
Next time any low life meanly mouthed zionist prick tries to insinuate that people who advocate the destruction of the apartheid state of Israel must be racist he/she should be reminded of this obscenity.
And finally it is worth noting that these two stories written by the same journalist and published in the same newspaper on the same day tells us quite a bit about ‘balanced’ reporting.
A non-story (Israeli citizens going to Israeli hospitals) is played up and a real story (Israel doesn’t provide air raid shelters for gentile citizens) is played down.
Not that anyone will notice. In amerika most will be dribbling on about the reuters photo-journalist who ‘doctored’ his pix.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 1:15 utc | 30
shit sorry Bernhard I nearly pushed the button 3 times b4 i remembered about typepad and the ‘frozen’ clock
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 1:17 utc | 31
What I’ve heard is that tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Israelis are living in bunkers/shelters. But the Arab Israelis apparently never built any for themselves. Dunno…
Good news for Chris Floyd Fans. In his words, he “fell upward”. He begins this week writing a weekly column for truthout, w/no new restrictions…
Posted by: jj | Aug 9 2006 1:52 utc | 32
@ jj The jewish areas have public shelters built by public authorities, the xtian and islamic areas were left out of those public works schemes.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 2:05 utc | 33
Ha Ha Hey r’giap here’s some news that on the surface is just a depressing re-inforcement of the Australian white establishment’s total inability to come to terms with multi-culturalism but it does contain sufficient irony to bring a smile to the visage.
Dean ‘the prick’ Jones has lost his gig as a TV commentator:
“WHEN Dean Jones uttered the words “the terrorist has got another wicket” from the back of a commentary box in Colombo, he did not know his offensive description of South African cricketer and devout Muslim Hashim Amla would go live to air on South African television.
Nor did the former Australian batsman take into account that his employer, production company Ten Sports, is owned by United Arab Emirates conglomerate Bukhatir Investments, a big player in the Islamic market. The TV company’s chairman, Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, helped bring international cricket to the UAE.
Jones, who makes most of his income from cricket commentary, will not work again for the world’s biggest producer of cricket.
It couldn’t happen to a bigger asshole.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 2:06 utc | 34
@Debs, I didn’t know that Israel was that thoroughly segregated. I just read in Haaretz that as many as a million Israelis are in shelters….
Posted by: jj | Aug 9 2006 2:15 utc | 35
Segregated by the laws and largesse of authority as much as geography.
That bastion of lefty journalism The Washington Times informs us that air raid shelters are provided by the municipality. It also tells us that the shelters in the russian areas don’t have beds which is an issue since other areas where the citizens have lived longer, well maybe not longer since you’d have to think the xtians and muslims would have been there a while, are much better equipped and maintained.
There is obviously some sort of discrimination going on. Some may remember the fundie jews preventing russian born IDF casualties from being buried in jewish cemeteries because they weren’t sufficiently jewish.
I’m sure that the Israeli ministry propagandists have a plethora of excuses. Excuses which would sound very familiar to anyone who has heard the ‘truth’ about apartheid or Jim Crow.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 2:27 utc | 36
What’s up with all the cryptic links? This isn’t Atrios. Give us a hint what you’re linking to at least, so we don’t have to click on stuff we aren’t interested in.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 9 2006 2:52 utc | 37
don’t know that this matters much to anyone here, but it looks like a victory for lamont. the true test will be joementum’s run as an independent – he hasn’t announced yet, but it will be interesting to see if the demopublicans support him or actually remember the constituents they work for.
Posted by: conchita | Aug 9 2006 3:01 utc | 38
How are ya Malooga? Is it my links? I don’t follow. I think all my links go to the subjects I discussed. Either air raid shelters or the lack of em in Israel apart from the one about the Australian cricketeer that I thought Giap may be interested in.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 9 2006 3:11 utc | 39
Well…fancy that. The NeoNuts aren’t the only truly mad ones at the helm. OPEC prices have just reached the Highest Ever, and damn if deservedly about to go broke GM isn’t announcing on Thursday, that they’re looking to revive their fortunes w/a soon-to-be-released Hot New Camaro…GM Clearly Bankrupt in every sense
Posted by: jj | Aug 9 2006 3:47 utc | 40
very useful discussion going on at the Michael Berube
blog about the politics of supporting the underdog in imperial struggles, and whether or not it matters if the anti-imperialists are chaos-vendors as well.
But most especially, follow this link to Moishe Postone’s paper(pdf!!). It’s invaluable. A key excerpt:
…The reemergence of imperialist rivalries calls for the recovery of nondualistic forms of internationalism.
However objectionable the current American administration is – and it is deeply objectionable on a very wide range of issues – the Left should be very careful about becoming, unwittingly, the stalking horse for a would-be rival hegemon. On the eve of World War I, the German General Staff thought it important for Germany that the war be fought against Russia as well as France and Great Britain. Becaise Russia was the most reactionary and autocratic European Power, the war could be presented as a war for Central European culture against the dark barbarism of Russia, which would guarantee Social Democratic support for the war. This political strategy succeeded – and resulted in a catastrophe for Europe in general and for Germany in particular. We are very far from a prewar situation like that of 1914. Nevertheless, the Left should not make a similar mistake by supporting, however implicitly, rising counterhegemons in order to defend civilization against the threat posed by a reactionary power.
Postone makes an essential distinction between movements that avoided attacking civilians (Vietnam National Liberation Front, ANC, etc.) and those that sought to attack civilians because they were part of the enemy – and notes that only the former approach leaves room to live together in peace after the fighting. He notes a shift in Left goals from social transformation to resistance to power, and points out that this is a shift in the left from well reasoned opposition to capitalism to more simple minded attacking of whichever voodoo doll is taken at the moment to stand in for capitalism. One cost of indulging in simple opposition is that one gives up on the goal of transfroming the world in any particular way. Which allows the Right to appropriate all the rhetoric of positive transformation (witness Freedom and Democracy).
I found his analysis very useful for anyone concerned to actually aim for a better world. Please do check it out.
Posted by: citizen | Aug 9 2006 3:58 utc | 41
tell that dean jones fella there’s an opening in the boonsboro police dpt here in the states if he’s interested
[Ex-]policeman admits civil-rights crimes
HAGERSTOWN, Md. – A former police officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to two civil-rights charges for making anonymous death threats against black school children and Hagerstown’s first black city council member.
…
Shifler was working for the Boonsboro Police Department when he made a series of calls to Hagerstown school officials and threatened to shoot black students, according to court records. The calls prompted several school lockdowns.
On Jan. 31, Shifler left an anonymous voice message at the home of Hagerstown City Council member Alesia Parson-McBean, claiming to represent the Ku Klux Klan and threatening to burn her house. He had sent her racially charged letters in 2004 on the letterhead of the Hagerstown Police Department, where he worked at the time.
Posted by: b real b real | Aug 9 2006 4:02 utc | 42
It seems that a nuclear device larger than a suitcase has just been detonated vicinity Hartford CT.
Think it was about the celebration of a funeral.
Don’t tell anyone.
Posted by: Edward Teller | Aug 9 2006 4:19 utc | 43
the detonation was loserman’s declaration that he will run as an independent. not a surprise but it is calling the dems’ bluff.
Posted by: conchita | Aug 9 2006 4:23 utc | 44
About more Arabs, Christians and Russians being hit … Certainly all the factors mentioned play a role. About 10 days ago I was reading a women’s blog discussion, with translated quotes, etc. and it was obvious that some poor families had simply nowhere to go…
Now, if I was a military strategist, which I am not, and I was looking for locales to put small military sites in (communications, etc.) and being aware of the Hezb rockets, I would place them in Arab and Christian areas.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 9 2006 10:48 utc | 46
9.11. Uncle Scam, limited hangout, yes, if you like. But one can also be forced or pushed into the position where such a move has to be made. I feel that that is what is happening here. Katrina, the disastrous Iraq war, have made people more willing to be negative, disaproving, and suspicious of the Bush administration. They sit up and say, and what was up with that? This has given the 9/11 truth movement a space in which to work. David Ray Griffin and Steven Jones (to mention just two very different figures) are coming close to being accepted and well-known.
Naturally the main stream press jumps on the bandwagon with a snarky tone – Read all about it! What kooky konspiracists believe! In this way they cover their asses, they are just reporting and informing on some new weird movement, the latest brand of supernatural cultists or whatever. The people in charge, though, know that such articles only suit the convinced, who come away with the impression that some Americans are weird and that there is free speech in America. Many other people will find something in the articles that speaks to their disquiet, and seeing mention in the mainstream press frees speech – such articles can be discussed.
The movement is very slow but well on its way. The administration has been very passive so far. That means either: a) they don’t care because they know it does not matter; b) they prefer to wait, and react rather than act, in function of some plan, such as a grand hang-out, which would include some high figure culprits, or some new scenario; c) they are at odds about it; d) they prefer, for their own reasons, to see US society become more divided, perhaps even polarised; e) their heads are stuck in the sand and they ignore bad news.
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 9 2006 11:23 utc | 47
For those whom don’t know, your unca started his blogging and linking skills over at Unknown News. A fine couple and a fine blog who run one of the longest and finest blogs on the net. They could always use your help, in whatever capacity you can offer.
Resigned, forced out, or skulked away
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 9 2006 11:27 utc | 48
For those whom don’t know, your unca started his blogging and linking skills over at Unknown News. A fine couple and a fine blog who run one of the longest and finest blogs on the net. They could always use your help, in whatever capacity you can offer.
Resigned, forced out, or skulked away
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 9 2006 11:28 utc | 49
grrr.. typepad is pissing me off…
As the circle jerk er, I mean elections are ramping up, the cyclical burn out of people who care, is sure to happen again, the following may help as a precaution antidote/inoculation, what have you:
Activism and Mental Health [Wed 8.02.06] seriously, that particular show was kick ass… entitled: Activism and Mental Health [Wed 8.02.06]you may have to scroll a bit to find it, but it will be worth it to some. It resonated with me on many levels.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 9 2006 12:10 utc | 50
I have no such love for her bother, however I highly respect Laura Nader’s anthropological work:
Larry Bensky interviews Laura Nader on sundays salon (audio mp3)
Continued conversation on the Middle East crisis. Joining us: UC Berkeley Anthropology professor and Lebanese-American Laura Nader, and Mazin Qumsiyeh, Palestinian professor and author of the recent book, “Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle,…
Note: Google’s cache of Mazin Qumsiyeh website because, I have tried for several days to access it from where I’m at.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 9 2006 13:51 utc | 51
ed herman applies to the contextual definition of ethnic cleansing an update of the analysis he & chomsky previously took to terrorism in their book “the washington connection”. in this article – “Kafka Era Studies, No. 1” 🙂 – he offers short case studies that exemplify categories of constructive, benign & nefarious ethnic cleansing. you probably already know where this leads, but herman is always worth a read.
Ethnic Cleansing: Constructive, Benign, and Nefarious (Kafka Era Studies, No. 1)
Over the past two decades, during which ethnic cleansing has frequently been featured by Western officials, pundits and human rights activists, a closely parallel system of official treatment and media follow-on is also evident. As with terrorism, in the official view ethnic cleansing can be constructive, benign, or nefarious, and the media recognize this and adjust with almost clockwork precision to the demands of state policy in treating its different manifestations.
…
In the age of Kafka, ethnic cleansing is clearly acceptable when it is serviceable to the United States or carried out by one of its allies or clients, but it is assailed with great energy and indignation and opposed by force when engaged in (or asserted to be engaged in) by a U.S. target. In the former cases, the United States and its allies may actively aid the ethnic cleansing state, and, except for occasional nominal actions that the international community does not attempt to enforce, and its occasional whimpers calling for restraint, ethnic cleansing can proceed for decades in violation of both international law and the moral rules supposedly guiding the enlightened West. This of course requires great discipline by the intellectual class and media, who must keep the bulk of relevant facts out of sight and allow the ethnic cleansing state to expropriate and remove its unwanted ethnic target population under cover of a combination of silence and its alleged necessary response to “terror” and inability to locate a “negotiating partner.”
Posted by: b real | Aug 9 2006 15:08 utc | 52
Again, I’ll use this thread by default.
Some good news from the UN. Since the Arab proposal was the only plausible one, and France didn’t want to put its boys lives on the line in support of the NeoNut Agenda, France now supports it. Are we lucky enough that this will gain support from sane Americans, or will NeoNuts continue their intransigence, even in the face of Chinese intervention.
UNITED NATIONS — The French-American alliance at the United Nations over a Mideast cease-fire agreement is crumbling, sources tell FOX News.
The French U.N. delegation has joined with Arab nations and is now calling for a complete and immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a condition of any cease-fire, the sources said.
(I don’t want to link to fox – it’s avail via antiwar.com.)
Posted by: jj | Aug 9 2006 18:08 utc | 53
Blow-Back in Norway, where a novelist, Jostein Gaarder, wrote an angry anti-Israeli rant, revoking its right to exist. Ruffled feathers and much commotion have resulted.
Here is the Link
Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 9 2006 18:56 utc | 54
Thanks for the links and news, b real, jj.
Putin’s energy chess game: The Algerian move against US/Europe
Europeans could pay more for natural gas as a result of a deal between Russian and Algerian state-controlled gas groups, Italy has warned.
Gazprom of Russia and Algeria’s Sonatrach agreed this month in a memorandum of understanding to work together in the liquefied natural gas business and could consider joint bids for foreign assets. …
Energy supplies are a particularly sensitive topic in Italy, as the country depends on imports for about 80 per cent of its gas needs: Russia meets 32 per cent of its gas demands, while 37 per cent comes from Algeria. …
Russian industry sources said Algeria has ordered eight battalions of the S-300PMU2 system in a $1 billion deal. The sources said the batteries would ensure coverage of major Algerian cities and strategic sites.
There’s more.
Seems like Bertusconi spent too much time backing the wrong pony.
Putin is methodically encircling Europe. He will strangle NATO quietly right before your eyes, and you won’t even see it happen.
******
I’d love to watch Putin and Bush square of for a few rounds of Texas hold ’em. Bush would have to hold on to more than his cards.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 9 2006 19:04 utc | 55
@GB:
Norway, because of its extensive oil and gas interests, has been able to pursue a far more independent foreign policy than other Northern European states. They have also been in discussions with the Russians over forming a gas cartel. I doubt they would, but its always good to keep the larger countries off balance by lording it over them.
It is worth noting that, historically, Norway has been the Lebanon of Scandinavia, with Denmark and Sweden periodically fighting each other for the privilege of controlling the poor fishermen of Norway.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 9 2006 20:39 utc | 56
Ex-Chiefs at Comverse Tied to Options Fraud
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn today charged three former top executives of Comverse Technology with criminal fraud, alleging that they manipulated the dates on stock-option grants to reap millions of dollars in additional compensation for themselves and other employees.
This is the same Comverse linked to Israeli spy operations inside the US on 9-11.
Also see: Options Charges
The Justice Department says Alexander wired $60 million from his own brokerage account to Israel “in an attempt to conceal the proceeds from the U.S. authorities.”
This is the same Comverse involved in the Israeli spy ring reported by Fox News’ Carl Cameron .
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 9 2006 20:49 utc | 58
Banning Coke seems peculiar, since the Indian farmers finally discovered a superb use for it – as a pesticide on cotton crops…I’d give ’em the Chemistry Nobel for that discovery 🙂
The other thing to remember about Norway is their leading Computer Engineer (developer of LINUX?) ran a successful campaign to keep them out of the EU. Lucky Bastards. Though there’s fear that since he died in last few yrs, that they might join. It’s the sanest country in the world. And that’s not just me. I read essay w/in last few yrs. by hugely successful bigtime money manager, who lived there for a good number of years. He returned saying that it was the best run country in the world….
But food is Hugely expensive ‘cuz of their latitude. A friend was visiting. She took 3-4 friends out for Chinese food & the bill was ~$250 – 1-2 yrs. ago.
The problem w/Sweden is that it’s economy is controlled by 7 families, and they were fighting hard to make it a more reactionary place.
Posted by: jj | Aug 10 2006 2:20 utc | 59