Quote of the Day: Free Palestine Edition

Litbrit made this great image. Politico reports he Senate just approved $225 million for the Israeli Iron Dome defense program. I support Israel's right to defend their civilian population from Hamas rocket attacks. The question is who defends the Palestinian civilians from Israeli drone attacks.

Cable news media should show photos like this to Washington politicians that falsely make the claim that Israel is going out of its ways to not target civilians. Israel shelled a United Nations school being used as a safe haven for Palestinian evacuees. Attacking a United Nations facility is a clear violation of international law. The United Nations has condemned Israel for the attack.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which operated the school-turned-shelter in the Jabalya refugee camp, said it had gathered evidence, analyzed bomb fragments and examined craters after the attack. Its initial assessment was that three Israeli artillery shells hit the school where 3,300 people had sought refuge.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces,” said Pierre Krähenbühl, the UNRWA commissioner-general. “This is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.”

The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone insane. Could you imagine the United Kingdom, Sweden are France attacking a U.N. facility. Israel isn't a democracy. Palestinians don't have a vote because they live under a government that has implemented a decades long apartheid policy.

Louie Gohmert Is Too Crazy For Government

Rep. Louie Gohmert is batshit crazy. Gohmert is advocating for starting war with Iran. Gohmert's reason is the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

“It is time to bomb Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Gohmert concluded. “It is time for the United States, if we are not going to stop Iran’s nukes, then let Israel do it. A friend will not put another friend in this kind of jeopardy.”

Gohmert is conflating the Gaza conflict with Iran's nuclear program. Raw Story reports that Iran is complying with the International Atomic Energy Agency agreement.

As agreed under a so-called Joint Plan of Action reached in November, the Islamic Republic has cut half of its stock of 20-percent enriched uranium down to five-percent purity.

The rest was being converted into uranium oxide.

Tehran also refrained from enriching above the five-percent level at any of its nuclear facilities, the IAEA report said.

Gohmert has no idea about the current state of Iran's nuclear program. Yet, Gohmert is advocating for war with Iran. People look at Gohmert as a clown and mock him. I find the man's stupidity to be scary and dangerous.

Calls For Gaza Cease Fire

A European ambassador told Haaretz's Barak Ravid the Eurupeans have no love for Hamas. What Israel needs to worry about is their shrinking political capital.

"Make no mistake," he said. "I understand why you embarked on the operation in Gaza, and many of my colleagues also understand and even support it, but a few days ago you started to cross red lines."

The ambassador continued, reiterating his support and his love for Israel. "We too would like to damage Hamas, we too would not sit by quietly if they were firing rockets at us," he said. "It was clear to us that innocent people would be hurt in any operation in Gaza, and we were prepared to accept that up to certain limit, but in the past few days it seems that your action is getting out of control, and the harm to civilians is tremendous."

It seems the Israeli government has gotten the message.

As well as Ms Livni's trip to Washington, Israeli ministers also held late-night talks on Egypt's latest mediation bid.

Meanwhile, Hamas has been invited back to Cairo on Friday for more talks, an official told the Al-Jazeera network.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC that Israel wanted a prompt end to the violence.

"The diplomacy now is in high gear. Hopefully we're entering the final act. We want this to be over as soon as possible," he said.

"The minute we can be sure that the solution will not be a band aid... the minute we can understand that the situation will be a sustained peace, then we're going to go for it."

Hamas is not interested in ending hostilities. Hamas sees Israel losing international support and and to continue the war. The Israelis want to destroy Hamas. The Israelis believe they can wait when international opin is favorable.

Gaza Strip War

The New York Times has an interactive map of the day-to-day conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Conservatism & the Media

Joe the Plumber is milking his 15 minutes of fame, as a bogus reporter covering the Gaza Strip conflict. What troubled me is Samuel Wurzelbacher voiced approval of media censorship.

"I'll be honest with you," Wurzelbacher said in his video analysis. "I don't think journalists should be anywhere [around] war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what's happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I-I think it's asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you'd go to the theater and you'd see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for 'em."

Didn't know he was that old. He continued: "Now everyone's got an opinion and wants to downer -- and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers. I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you're gonna sit there and say, 'Well, look at this atrocity,' well, you don't know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it."

We can make fun of Wurzelbacher barely being able to articulate. We can make fun of Wurzelbacher's hypocrisy of saying journalists should not be allowed in war zones. However, Wurzelbacher feels he should have the right to go to Israel as a journalist. None of that matters since Wurzelbacher is not important.

Wurzelbacher voiced mainstream conservative opinion about the media. Wurzelbacher and the GOP base want the media shut down. They are able to rationalize Fox News, the National Review, and Washington Times is not part of the media. That is disingenuous thinking.

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government..." Thomas Jefferson said. "I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." A government without the fourth estate will abuse power. There is a reason Richard Nixon didn't want the Watergate tapes to be released. Nixon knew the American people would hear audio of a hateful man engaged in criminal activity. Nixon would have been allowed to keep his plumbers working, if it wasn't for the Washington Post.

Wurzelbacher is under false impression that information will not come out of war zones. Omar al-Bashir has kept journalists and the United Nations out of Darfur. That hasn't stopped the flow of information about the genocide.

Austin Bay and Jay Rosen had an interesting debate about the media's coverage of the White House message on the Iraq war. Bay is a conservative and Iraq war veteran. Bay wished the media was more sympathetic to the Bush administration's Iraq strategy. Even Bay conceded the White House did a horrible job with their message.

Here’s a good reason: America must win the War On Terror, and the poisoned White House—national press relationship harms that effort. History will judge the Bush Administration’s prosecution of the War On Terror. A key strategic issue for the current White House—perhaps a determinative issue for historians—will be its success or failure in getting subsequent administrations to sustain the political and economic development policies that truly winning the War On Terror will entail.

Good PR is important. The press and President Bush could both agree the current economy is fantastic. That doesn't mean the public will believe the message. Newspapers are dying because corporations are more concerned with profits than reporting. Corporate CEOs would rather fill news pages with Paris Hilton and AP stories than develop good beat reporters. Bush had high approval ratings and wasn't able to deliver on "Mission Accomplished" or WMDs. The President lost his credibility on Iraq. You can sell a newspaper or political spin. That doesn't mean anyone is going to buy.

Some Punchlines Write Themselves

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Burger at 1600

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Joe the Plumber is going to the Gaza Strip to be a reporter for Pajamas Media. Jon Stewart rightfully makes fun of the stupidity of this.

Gaza Strip News

International Solidarity Movement supplied the Guardian with footage of the aftermath of the Israeli air raid. The town of Rafah was heavily battered from bombing.

In other news: President-elect Obama intends to have back-channel talks with Hamas.

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group.

The Guardian has spoken to three ­people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp. There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive. A tested course would be to start ­contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services, similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.

The Bush policy of not talking to Hamas hasn't worked. I am not sure Obama's attempts at dialogue will be anymore productive. Hamas does not want an independent state, living peacefully with Israel. Hamas wants the destruction of Israel. The Europeans, Canada and Australia recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization. Where is the middle ground?

Hamas has become extremely popular in the occupied territories for providing social services. The corrupt Afafat regime failed to take care of the Palestinian people. The first thing Obama needs to do is get the Israelis and Palestinians away from the other's throat. Clinton was good at that. President Bush told Colin Powell: "I don’t see much we can do over there at this point." We see what Bush's lack of interest has done to Israel. Obama appears to be engaged. That is a promising start.

Who's in control?

[Crossposted from Talk Radio is Stupid]

Ran across an interesting report in my Twitterfeed today. Al Jazeera Gaza (AJGaza) had two reports on a brief ceasefire three hours ago...

Report 1:

The Israeli military confirms it has paused military operations in #Gaza for a period of three hours to allow Palesti nians to access aid.

Report 2:

Hamas says it will not fire rockets into Israel during the same period of time, Al Jazeera's corre spondent reports.

One might say, "Great! At least they agree to something!" But not so fast. Here's a third report from AJGaza:

One rocket and two mortars fired from #Gaza by Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, thirty minutes i nto hostility pause.

So a 180 minute truce lasted all of 30 minutes because of Hamas... Maybe.
Reading news like this makes me wonder who's really in control of the Palestinian military operations (if you can even apply such a grand title to a Mickey Mouse system of rockets) in Gaza. The first update says that Hamas and Israel agreed to the brief ceasefire, but the third update says the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades were firing rockets. While the Qassam Brigades are commonly regarded as the military wing of the Hamas party, has anyone considered the notion that they could have autonomy from Hamas? If the latter is true, then even the Palestinian government Israel claims to be fighting against is more complex then they have presented.

Second thought: These reports also mean that Israel refuses to let any humanitarian aid in unless the rocket fire stops. Since Israel full well knows that innocent civilians have been harmed as a direct result of their rockets, not giving those citizens access to medical aid which they need puts to rest any notion that Israel isn't targeting civilians. Anyone who argues to the contrary is an idiot (and we sure have a lot of those people around, unfortunately). And isn't holding back humanitarian aid breaking some international laws? It's like Israel hasn't respected international law since the year of their formation, 1948! Oh wait, I'm not being sarcastic. Oopsie.
Third thought: Israel may have broken the ceasefire, too. Here's a tweet from a Palestinian in Gaza from 2 hours ago:

the occupation bombed my home and iam fin e #gaza

This tweet was posted a couple of hours ago, but it could be in response to the fact that he hadn't tweeted in a couple of days.. Meaning his house could have been bombed in the past two days and not two hours. It's still surreal, though, to receive communiqués whose house was just bombed. Maybe Israel thought his house contained one of those famous Hamas terrorist cells. Boy they recruit young.
Click here if you want to be even more appalled.  That should tell you who's really in control.

Naked Brunch: Of puppies, their naming, consequences, and other unrelated matters

I worked for  a whopping two days last week, between my Xmas vacation and New Year's vacation.  I accomplished next to nothing at work, except for one tiny little licking, squirming, cuter-than-hell thing (see left below with Oz in the background thru the glass door).  

I brought home a little girl puppy this past Monday who had been on her own enough time to be a mess and near starving.  She was dropped off at our office by a woman who found her and couldn't find a no kill shelter for her and begged us to place her.  She had found her three days previous, but had made no attempt to clean her up, but did feed her.  

I went immediately to the groomer for cleansing and de-lousing.  Then the vet for a checkup and shots.  Along the way, during her time in the wilds, she picked up an intestinal amoeba and worms, all of which have been taken care of.  Poor little mite.

As some of you may know, I live at the parents house.  This was NOT a pleasant surprise to my father, who started yelling at me, at the top of his lungs, red-faced and fuckin' furious.  He's managed to settle down a bit since, like 6 days later, he is actually conversing with me again.  He'll end up loving this pup as much as I have begun to do.  

My dogs are furious as well, although not until after the first greeting of the pup and their own natural curiousity.  It went downhill shortly thereafter, when they figured out she was going to stay as well as their jealousy for my attention, which I have yet to stint them.  The puppy's unwavering cuteness and showing off, rolling over, and antics, have hard pressed them to be mean to her, although they continue to growl on occassion.  This little girl will go to the bathroom on demand, sleeps through the night (in bed with me) or as long as I do, and takes a bunch of naps beside, allowing me to type right at the moment.  She is a vigorous little vocal bundle, who has seemingly doubled in size within a week!  

Here's the thing, I can not decide on a name.  My other dogs have been named, Nike (after the Greek Goddess of strength, speed and victory), Sadie (as in "sexy Sadie" after the Beatle's tune), Cleo (after Cleopatra), Oz (after Ozymandias who was Ramses II of Egypt), and Luna (The Moon, since it was my very first view of her at a bare 4 weeks old, mooning me).  All but Oz and Luna are deceased now, and every one of them were amazing companions and friends in their own unique way and each with a very special personality.  I have loved them all dearly.  Most recently, I lost my Cleo in February 2008.  Oz will be 14 this year and Luna 11.  It's a little late to introduce a puppy to them, but they will eventually find an accommodation with each other, as dogs always will. 

I always allow a dog to name themselves, but this dog, doesn't perk up on any name.  She responds very well to Potty, but I'll not name her that!  She'll think I am constantly asking her to go to the bathroom.  So, I need help.  With other names, or to pear down this list.  I have already peared it down from 75 or so.

Here are my and the pups (I think) favorites so far, in no particular order:

• Juno (Roman Goddess, special counselor and protector of state)
• Abbey (after the Beatle's Abbey Road)
• Poppy (too close to Potty)
• Bella (cuz I like it)
• Ariel (from The Little Mermaid)
• Cira (after the star)
• India (guess)
• Zoe (from a character in an old TV show)
• Lela (song by Derek and the Dominoes, aka Eric Clapton)
• Maia (greek name meaning great or mother)
• Serefina (Sera for short) (character from the Golden Compass)
• Synne (from Geoffery Chaucer, "Goddes synne of worldly sorwe...")
• Zaida (Zaida of Seville, an 11th Century exile Muslim princess who was the mistress (or, by some theories, the wife and queen) of King Alfonso VI of Castile)

I'm sick of calling her pup and hey!  So, give me some consensus here or suggest something else.  I need some help!

From my friends on the web:

Check this out at P!  Cripes.  This is sickening.  Part II and Part III.

More on the same BS in Gaza from my friend Tas. 

Some hearty (Bush-enabled) amusement from my Zen Comix friend over at Pushing Rope:  19 and 20, 18 

My friend Rip seems to be MIA since the 20th or so.... damnit, just like those folks from Providence.

My friend, the psychotic painter, Robert Dowling has been in hospital for 10-days for a physical ailment that has been plaguing him and is not in good shape.  Please send him your well wishes for a speedy recovery - he needs it.  You can also help him out by buying a lovely print of one of his Dowling originals.  I"ll be buying an original, hopefully soon.  Be well my friend and check your e-mail.  

Ruins of Empire has the best interview ever:  Dr. Who!!!! ( I am addicted - all over again!)

Jesus' General has a press release from Lois Capps.  (I do love that inner Frenchman.)

Josh Marshall on the J Street bunch, who deserve kudos as well as to Josh for a great pickup.

Al Franken - thank goodness.

Rod the Idiot:  Reid called Blagojevich

Chris Floyd "because we're the altruistic stabilizers..." 

John Cole's Balloon Juice on Goldfarb's apparent psychosis.

Acephalous wacked monologues, (which I love), on big versus the little ..... screen.

And, thus ends another episode of Naked Brunch.  (Yes, I'm naked and brunch was on me.)

Honesty and peace, they go hand in hand. And without one...

For the past eight years Bush has used the "Blame the Beaten Wife" argument against Palestinians, so his implementation of it again in his radio address today isn't surprising. Likewise, maybe this part of is speech isn't surprising, either, but I think it's worthy of closer inspection:

He expressed concern about the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, but again blamed this on Hamas.

"By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people," Bush said.

The assumption here is that the Palestinian people are free to live their lives how they wish and build a society. You have to be pretty ignorant of history to believe this, but Bush is talking to Americans here... So we have a lot of people who believe this.

I could whip out the traditions arguments against Bush's assertion: Israel's economic blockade of the Occupied Territories: controlling how much water and electricity they do (and don't receive), continually taking their land, building walls around their society that separate the territories from the rest of the world, etc. And all of that is important, but first we need a visual representation of oppression.



Here's a colored map of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where most Palestinians live. The dark green spots show the parts of the territories which are nominally under the control of Palestinians. As you can tell, the areas that Palestinians "control" in their own territory is startlingly fragmented -- how could anyone even claim that Palestinians are free to build their own society when they are given so little land build upon?

And where it's not dark green? Could be an Israeli-only highway, could be Israeli settlers who are surrounded by the IDF for protection. Last July, a Guardian reporter went to a West Bank town (which I would surmise to not be in a dark green zone) and made a must-see audio slideshow of how differently Palestinians and Israeli settlers are treated there. The slideshow gives you a personal view of all the traditional arguments: land and water control, electricity, checkpoints, etc. Is this the Palestinian freedom that Bush speaks of? Is he kidding?

As for the dark green spots, some will point out that all of Gaza is dark green because Israel moved all of its settlers out of there. So they're free, right? I think the past couple of weeks have given us an answer to that question -- an indisputable fact that only a stubborn idiot would protest against.

Which brings us back to Bush.

One wonders what Bush's motivations are. With less than 20 days left in office, does he have any motivation left? Does he actually believe what his speech writers tell him to say even though it can easily be debunked by a blogger with half an hour to kill? Is Bush actually that stupid? Or is Israel holding a gun to Bush's head, telling him that they'll spend billions on arms from Russia instead of us if he doesn't pimp their public relations points about how war against Palestinians is an awesome thing? Though interesting to ponder, we won't know the answer for quite a while (if ever, depending on how many documents the Bush administration shreds on its way out the door).

What is important to note is that, whether or not Bush knows he's lying, he's not helping. By arguing that Palestinians are free and choose to be terrorists, Bush does not honestly assess the dire situation the Palestinians live under every day. How can a peace process even begin when one side isn't represented honestly?

Thus, the cycle of violence continues. Thanks Bush. Please be sure to fuck the hell off on your way out, you warmongering fucking asshole.

Placing the latest Israel/Gaza violence into perspective...

Robert Fisk (h/t mattthebastard):

Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis -- just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated." And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" -- as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.

Amnesty International:

This is the highest level of Palestinian fatalities and casualties in four decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The escalation of violence comes at a time when the civilian population already faces a daily struggle for survival due to the Israeli blockade which has prevented even food and medicines from entering Gaza.

So this latest Israeli hissy fit bout of violence may be unprecedented (since 1948, at least). And speaking of the Israelis blockading aid, the Guardian reports...

Israel accused of ramming Gaza aid ship

The Free Gaza Movement said its vessel, the Dignity, was intercepted by several Israeli vessels as it was heading to the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli aerial bombardment since Saturday.

One gunboat rammed the Dignity on the port bow side, causing heavy damage, although no one was hurt, the group said.

"[The Dignity] is taking on water and appears to have engine problems," the movement said on its website. "When attacked, the Dignity was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza.

As for the origins of this current crisis, it's tough to know where to begin... But, as OpenLeft points out, some blame should be given to the Bush administration since it was them who helped bring Hamas into power (ironically enough):

Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America's behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)

But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.

But, as we all know, the real question is how many anti-Arab, pro-death trolls will this post rake in? Fuck talking about reality! Meanwhile, the bodycount mounts... And Arab leaders still don't know what the hell to do. (Well, except for the Egyptians, who seem content with shooting at Gazans at the border and not opening up their hospitals to them. Classy.) But to be fair, Bush doesn't know what to do either -- he won't even cut his vacation short because of the crisis. Which is also classy.