Wednesday Open Thread
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of your open thread. Fire away!
It’s time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public know what’s going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP’s strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the President is ultimately in charge.
If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP’s north American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
We’re having a weird spectacle of crazy Michele Bachmann calling for the government to commandeer private boats (to do what exactly – we don’t know that) and Bobby Jindal begging for the federal government to come save them. Of course it seems equally weird for Louisiana Senator David Vitter to uphold oil companies’ damage caps.
Leadership PACs are a scam. I’m shocked, SHOCKED to learn that politicians are using PACs to line their own pockets and the pockets of their friends.
Minority Leader John A. Boehner has collected more than $1.4 million from business interests this election cycle for a committee he says he created to help fellow Republican lawmakers. But Boehner’s committee has spent only about a third of its money helping other candidates.
About two-thirds of its expenditures have gone instead to costs the committee describes as necessary to raise money, including fine meals and trips to luxurious resorts where the congressman mingles with corporate-directed groups and lobbyists. Boehner (Ohio) has spent more than $182,000 through the committee on frequent travel with donors to Florida and similar vacation spots, according to Federal Election Commission records, including $70,403 at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples and more than $30,000 at Disney Resort Destinations.
…
Instead, the PACs spend the bulk of their money funding their own operations, spending sizeable sums on fundraisers that also offer sweet perquisites for members and their aides. The PACs have financed distant resort stays and expensive meals for members in New York, Miami, Beverly Hills and elsewhere and paid for private jets, liquor, flowers, limousines, ski lift and baseball tickets, and even horse track visits, according to tallies submitted monthly to the FEC.
Remember how Sarah Palin’s PAC spent money to buy her own books? She’s just a follower, not a leader in this trend to rip off your followers and wallow in corporate money.
Tags: Open Thread
Lebanon just shot down 2 Isralie jets flying over their soverign territory. One reporter from BBC is missing even though he was on the ship when it was taken into port? 40 people are being detained by Israel even though Turkish PM Erdogan warned Israel to return all the dead and all the prisoners, or else! One after the other nations are recalling their ambassdors. This thing is really getting hot. Witness’s who were are onboard are speaking out. Some say they were shocked, beaten, slapped, and forced to sign documents. Those that refused were held separately. Three more new flotillas on their way from Ireland. Irish PM dares Israel to attack those ships.
Another masterpiece from Frank Knotts.
and…
AT&T tightens the screws on iStuff owners:
$15 for 200 megabytes is “insanely great” – if you are an AT&T shareholder. I wonder what Apple’s cut is.
Maybe some of that money will go to the new higher wages at that Foxconn plant where they build the iPhone.
Why were there 700 people on a cargo convoy?
Ex-FL GOP Chair Jim Greer has been arrested.
I wonder if this will affect Crist or Rubio. Rubio has also been caught using the GOP credit card for personal expenses.
What kind of monsters would block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza?
what kind? Hamanster’s ofcourse!
…I mean that’s just vile propaganda from the right wing CNN!
From the affidavit:
Meow! Rich Lowry isn’t seeing starbursts about Linda McMahon.
A new poll shows Sestak up on Toomey by 7% (47-40). It doesn’t look like the job offer non-troversy is having much of an effect on the race, perhaps improving Sestak’s numbers a bit. I’m sure it has to be helping with his name recognition.
Random rant–what is with all the campaign signs already? Around Brandywine Hundred there are huge Bob Weiner signs posted on corners that will be landscape pollution for the next 5 months, as will all the others that inevitably pop up. Also, Castle’s people are going around and leaving his signs on people’s porches with notes “thanking them for their support” when they haven’t even been requested (or wanted for that matter)! Rollins already has them out too…wouldn’t alot of time, energy and resources be better used if these signs were not legal? Of course signs for landscapers and what not are banned, but the pols won’t regulate their own signs for the sake of their livelihoods! And yes, I know about the 30 days from election day law, but it seems this year campaigns are going to be fought on how many thousands of signs can be put in every possible thoroughfare…ok, I’m done! 🙂
Oh No.
Atlas Shrugged starts movie production in June? Ick.
Weiner has always done a mini-sign blitz around this time of year when he’s running for reelection. He usually takes them down pretty quickly, they don’t stay up from now ’til the election. What’s different this year is that he has a D opponent, Michael Annone, and Annone has signs up as well. I like it. Kinda shows he won’t be bullied.
Gotcha Som–wasn’t being partisan, just thought it was a bit early!
signs on public right of way are regulated by law.
signs on private property may be restricted by zoning or HOA rules.
if memory serves, political signs are allowed in the public right of way (with safety restrictions) 30 days preceding the primary and 30 days preceding the general election.
The only lie on here is about Israeli (that’s the correct spelling asshat) jets being shot down. Nothing on MSNBC, CNN, NY Times, Wash Post or AP. Was this part of some weird wet dream you were having itsallacomedy? Also, couldn’t find anything about a missing BBC reporter either. One would think that the BBC would run that on the homepage, but nada. Another one of your fantasies.
You know, itsallacomedy is so full of shit, his eyes are brown.
Ted Haggard is starting a new church. I wonder if the main hymn will be “Oh Come All Ye Faithful?” 😉
MJ: Its so nice to hear you believe the only news worth reporting is that which you can see on corporate owned zionist tv. I don’t get my news from there. These stories come from Hurriyet (Turkish newspaper), Miliyet (another paper) and Press TV. The kidnapped and imprisoned humanitarian peace folk are now talking. The Captain of the Greek ship, Elefteri Mesogios stated “we were beaten and electric shocks were used”. Every passenger had all their personal belongings confiscated including laptaps, cameras, film, clothing. Many reporters on these ships had footage which was immediately confiscated so Israel could make sure no other story could get out except what they put out. Hurryiet, and Press TV both covered the shooting down of the Israelie fighter planes this morning. Immediately after the Flotilla attack all news media were blocked and censored from reporting any stories except those given to them by Israel. We still don’t know who is dead, what their names are or what country they are from. And yes there is a BBC reporter who has not been found. Its too bad you elitists actually believe your getting the whole story and do no homework or research of your own. I happen to have a friend who is fluent in Turkish and Greek and read the stories from those papers. I have sent the emails to a few people who are on my mailing list. I don’t have to prove anything, I am reporting what I am reading and seeing from the other side, not the Israelie side of things. Those reports were sent to WILM and WDEL and others. Believe what you want, I want to ferret the truth, I believe the stories from those humanitarians, professors, ministers, politicans, Col. Ann Wright(US), journalists and nobel peace folk. You can believe whatever your little brain will permit you to believe.
Two more sources for the “don’t no it alls”. Google: Jewishpeacenews, or JStreet…lots of material for you there too. Are you aware of the Rabbis marching in TelAviv and NY with people of concience? If you want to see some more information, check out DemocracyNow.org. last nights show. They show more video than you will ever see on corporate owned zionist tv networks.
Urquhart says believing in separation of church & state makes you a NAZI!!!!!
http://www.delawaregrapevine.com/6-10churchstate.asp
I think his info came from the Renew America nutjobs: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/080119
Unknown Comic – you need to stop with your “Jews own the media” bullshit. It’s anti-Semitic and will not be tolerated. You are on notice. If you don’t understand this, post another piece of anti-Semitic garbage on here and you’ll see what I mean.
And you have one thing correct – you are a ferret.
President Obama today: “I signed a Memorandum that requires Executive agencies to take immediate action to extend to the same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees a number of meaningful benefits, from family assistance services to hardship transfers to relocation expenses. It also requires agencies that extend any new benefits to employees’ opposite-sex spouses to make those benefits available on equal terms to employees’ same-sex domestic partners to the extent permitted by law.”
Good for him.
A new Barack Obama’s Facebook feed — the Tony Hayward tag is choice.
Urquhart is typical of the teabaggers – everything they don’t like about POTUS and the Democrats is “nazism/communist/socialist/fascist.” Too bad he eff’d up, because I would love to see he beat Miss Jamaica 1963.
The Israeli pirates killed an American citizen with 4 shots to the head and one to the chest. Obomba shrugs while Biden says the piracy was justified.
Gaza 2010 = Warsaw 1940
A1 = asshat!!!
These “peace activists” were trying to run a blockade. They were looking for trouble and they found it. They have themselves to blame. If they would have taken Israel up on their offer to offload the supplies at Ashdod, no one would have been injured. They got what they deserved by trying to supply Hamas, a terrorist organization, with weapons.
Blaming the victims, again, MJ. Where were the weapons? Why is Israel trying to stop an impartial UN inquiry? Why did Israel confiscate cameras and computers?
I guess that you would have felt the same way about people smuggling food into the Warsaw Ghetto.
Gaza 2010 = Warsaw 1940
By putting 700 civilians on the boats, Hamas has extended its human shield tactics beyond its borders. When you offer yourself up as a human shield, there is no guarantee of safety.
The weapon was the propaganda payload. These people were not needed to deliver supplies, only to deliver a propaganda message. The goal was to provoke an incident that would somehow lead to an end to the blockade, thus clearing a path for future shipments of actual weapons.
Why did Israel confiscate cameras and computers?
cameras – to deny Hamas a Pallywood propaganda offensive
computers – for intelligence on future blockade running or attacks
“impartial UN inquiry” – LOL
A1 – I had relatives who died in the Warsaw Ghetto and in the camps during WW2. For you to even write what you did shows how much of a complete asshole fucktard your really are. You’re gone.
Then maybe you might have some sympathy for the people trying to save the children of Gaza. Or families of those slain by the Israeli pirates. But all you got is “They got what they deserved…”
Then maybe you might have some sympathy for the people trying to save the children of Gaza.
And those people trying to save the children would NOT be Hamas.
The children of Gaza will be much better off when their parents stop making war on Israel. Just like the children of Jordan and Egypt.
When is Israel going to stop stealing the land and bulldozing the homes of Palestinians? There is nothing more vicious when the once-oppressed become the oppressors.
Hamas’ idea of saving children is to use them as human shields on boats trying to run a naval blockade. Now I understand you – it’s OK to sacrifice children for the good of Hamas.
“We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us” Golda Meir
Keep blaming the victims, MJ. We will have peace when the Israelis love their children more than they hate the Palestinians.
A1, do you talk in cliches as well?
A1 has yet to have an original thought in any of his posts. And which “we” are you referring to? Do you have family in Israel? Are you an Israeli Arab or Palestinian? Or or you just some Jew-hating asshat from PA?
MJ you are spot on about A1 not having an original thought. With all of his diatribes, he always falls back on slogans and chiches
anonone 2010 = cliche 2009
I think the way this gets solved is a visionary POTUS has to force an agreement for a two-state solution. The problem is, Hamas wants a one-state solution. There is no point sitting at the table until Hamas is gone.
I support a two state solution and so do many Israelis (Bibi not being one of them). But Hamas only wants one thing and that is the destruction of Israel. The militant-terrorist Palestinians since 1948 have told their people to just sit and wait, they will have the Jews’ homes soon. Well, it’s been 62 years, so I don’t see Israel going away.
A government led my Kadima or Labor is what Israel needs.
I agree… I don’t get why they keep building settlements. Expansionism goes beyond what is required for security.
But remember, it was Sharon who bulldozed the Jewish settlements in Gaza.
The “we” I was referring to was the world, of which I am a citizen. And I noticed that, as usual, you’ve resorted to personal attacks when you can’t backup your facts (like “They got what they deserved by trying to supply Hamas, a terrorist organization, with weapons” when there was no evidence of weapons on those boats).
Calling me “some Jew-hating asshat from PA” is pretty much scrapping the bottom of the barrel, even for you, MJ. It is the last resort from those who believe that Israel can do no wrong and should suffer no criticism, even as it starves the children of Gaza and murders those trying to help them.
anon wrote: I don’t get why they keep building settlements.
Because who is going to stop them?
Because who is going to stop them?
I’m throwing you a bone, A1. Take it.
I don’t see any advantage to building settlements other than to mollify their own wingnuts. And the disadvantages are huge.
Like I said, Ariel Sharon destroyed more Jewish settlements than any Arab or UN force.
It may interest you to know that I’m neither Jewish nor Arab; just an asshat from Delaware who reads the news and reads history and usually sides more with Israel. But I’m not with those who think Israel can do no wrong.
No, A1, it’s recognizing you for who and what you are, you and itsallacomedy.
All media has shown the weapons that were seized. Video shows these “peace activists” with knives and clubs, wearing gas masks (or maybe you don’t watch that Zionist-owned media outlet called MSNBC).
A statement from the Reform movement, the most liberal of Jewish denominations.
And here’s a picture of one of the “peace activists” with her human shield.
FWIW, the person citing “zionist” American media is the same person who, under another alias, has tossed around similar comments about bankers. This is a person who, no matter what the issue, cannot support one side without denigrating and smearing the other, which is the reason this person never gets any traction despite years of good intentions.
The IDF murders a US citizen, Furkan Dogan, 19, and VP Biden says “what’s the big deal?”
Now delacrat chimes in. What took you so long?
delacrat = revisionist
None of these people calling for an end to the blockade have a single idea to stop attacks from Gaza on Israel once the blockade has ended. Not one of them has anything to offer.
In fact, if borders are opened and heavy weapons make their way into Gaza, those weapons will inevitably be used on Israel, because Hamas just can’t help itself. And then the next stop is the devastation and re-occupation of Gaza.
Back in the sane world, a blockade is usually considered to be preferable to war. Not so to Hamas.
So, pray for the blockade to work.
I followed the link, and Joe Biden didn’t say anything about the US citizen. The conflation of two data to smear someone’s position isn’t offensive only when conservatives do it.
And, following six more seconds of research, we find:
“American-born high school student Furkan Dogan, 19, is among the nine people confirmed killed by Israeli commandos on a Turkish humanitarian aid ship.
Dogan, who moved to Turkey at 2 years old ….”
Guess that explains why Biden wouldn’t have mentioned it…
Geezer @2:01 PM
“Dogan, who moved to Turkey at 2 years old ….”
Guess that explains why Biden wouldn’t have mentioned it…”
Biden knew there were US citizens on those ships, and did nothing to dissuade Israel. For him to have a ho-hum attitude towards a so-called ally that kills and endangers US citizens is despicable.
How did Biden know the citizenship of any of these “peace activists?” Please provide a link to back up your claim.
I seriously doubt there was a manifest with passport information. You’re grasping at straws, delacrat.
According to the press, the US did contact IDF many times urging restraint in its interception of the ships.
The problem is, the blockade is currently serving to prevent a war and reoccupation in Gaza. So if the US contributes to ending the blockade, we become responsible for the consequences.
So, MJ, kitchen knives and crowbars were the weapons that they were trying to “supply” to Hamas, which is why according to you “they got what they deserved.” Your link to the Reform Movement simply regurgitates and relies the statements from the Israeli pirates, who have no credibility and are refusing an independent investigation. And how sad that all you see in a picture of a mother with her baby is a “human shield.”
It is a baby, not a shield.
It was a baby that was on the ship with his “peace activist” mother. What type of parent would put their child in harm’s way? A Hamas terrorist supporter, that’s who.
A1 – you seem to have all of the answers, so please explain why these “peace activists” were wearing gas masks, or even had them on board? That’s not typical cruisewear.
Again, these “peace activists” went looking for trouble and they found it. If they would have simply taken up the offer from Israel to dock is Ashdod, off-load the supplies, and then have the supplies trucked to Gaza, the 9 who died would be alive.
A1 – you probably blame the police for pulling you over if they catch you speeding, don’t you?! And if they find pot in your car, it’s their fault for stopping you.
MJ, they knew that they were defying the Israeli blockade, and they did not know what the consequences would be. Gas masks are not weapons; they are a means of avoiding injury. Do people not have a right to protect themselves when attacked?
I think that the woman taking the baby on the ship was wrong to do so. It does not make her a terrorist or her baby a “human shield.”
As far as the Israeli offer to dock at Ashdod, one has to ask why would they trust the Israelis to delver the supplies?
If the police catch me speeding, then I am the perpetrator, not the victim. But if they catch me speeding and then shoot and kill me for nothing, than I am the victim. These activists were trying to peacefully end an illegal and unjust blockade and the Israeli pirates killed them for that. In your world, they got what they deserved. In my world, they are heros.
I wonder what the “peace activists” were planning to do with those stun grenades in Gaza, if they had not thrown them at the IDF.
I don’t think there were any serious weapons on board. Their plan was to get boarded.
Once all the other ships were stopped peacefully, the last ship realized they needed to put up a fight if they wanted to get somebody killed and make the news. It worked.
“Why would they trust the Israelis to deliver the supplies?” Because that is what Israel has been doing, asshat.
Since we’re obviously discussing something that is above your ability to comprehend, I’ll boil it down for you: You get stopped by a cop. You have a knife in your hand. The cop tells you to drop the knife. You not only refuse, but you lunge towards the cop. The cop shoots you. You die.
So, is it’s the cop’s fault that you were killed? You obviously believe it is.
This is not an “illegal blockade.” It is a legal, and so far has been a safe, means to prevent weapons from entering Gaza.
Gas masks are not weapons; they are a means of avoiding injury.
Gas masks are a way to keep fighting when somebody is using gas to tell you “Stop or I’ll shoot.”
Also they make great photo ops.
“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has asked for urgent access to wounded civilians. ICRC also reports that the Israeli army has failed to assist Palestinians in need of medical assistance and has imposed delays on ambulance access to neighbourhoods under fire. The ICRC has said that ‘the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.’ ”
“We find it hard to believe that an otherwise internationally respected, democratic nation can sanction such large and indiscriminate human atrocities in a territory already under land and sea blockade. The heavy loss of civilian life and destruction of Gaza’s health system is unjustified and disproportional, despite rocket attacks by Hamas. The collective punishment of Gazans is placing horrific and immediate burdens of injury and trauma on innocent civilians. These actions contravene the fourth Geneva Convention.”
So I am sure that the residents of Gaza have every reason to trust the IDF. Why wouldn’t you trust an army that denies medical care to civilians and commits “large and indiscriminate human atrocities” and practices “collective punishment?” Sounds a lot like the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, don’t you think?
But just keep cheering for them! Go Israel! Eventually they will solve the Palestinian problem.
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60049-0/fulltext
Nobody is suggesting that Gaza should control what Israel imports.
But Zionists insist on controlling Gaza’s.
By Zionists you mean Jews? Seriously, isn’t that the crux of your statement, delacrat? C’mon, admit it. I know, we control the media and the banks and even Congress.
As for the wounded, A1, they were taken to hospitals for treatment. If they were OK’d for travel, they were deported. And what neighborhoods are under fire? Your link is from JANUARY!!! What’s the matter, couldn’t find anything more recent of relevant? Probably not.
Again, no, asshat, it doesn’t sound like the Warsaw Ghetto; there is no comparison for you to even try to make a correlation between what is going on now and what happened in 1939. Just shows how much of a mental midget you truly are.
“For him to have a ho-hum attitude towards a so-called ally that kills and endangers US citizens is despicable.”
And for you to insist that US government officials should take the Turkish side because some US citizens decided to join them is at least as despicable. The government should take no sides just because some American citizens decide to take part in a politically charged situation. Think about it: If they took Israel’s side because some US citizens have served in the Israeli army, you’d be braying the opposite of what you are now.
“it doesn’t sound like the Warsaw Ghetto; there is no comparison…” MJ @ 4:21
MJ,
The Wehrmacht said it was preventing “smuggling” into the Warsaw Ghetto.
The IDF says it is preventing “smuggling” into Gaza.
Wehrmacht 1939 = IDF 2010
MJ: Of course it’s not the Warsaw Ghetto. But it’s hard to argue that Gaza is not a form of ghettoization of Palestinians.
“The [US] government should take no sides just because some American citizens decide to take part in a politically charged situation” Geezer @ 4:28
Geezer,
The US government bankrolls Israel by $3 Billion / year.
The Blackhawk helicopter, for example, the IDF used in this crime was made in the USA and paid for by US citizens and taxpayers on those vessels.
Hence, the US government is already taking Israel’s side, in this case, so Israel to attack our citizens and taxpayers.
And what does Biden and Geezer say? “What’s the big deal?”
That IS despicable.
The Warsaw Ghetto was part of the Final Solution to rid the earth of Jews. Jews all over Europe were either FORCED into ghettos (and not allowed to leave) or sent to concentration camps.
Palestinians in Gaza are free to leave, via Egypt. Others who have work permits are allowed to cross into Israel, although this has been curtailed in the past. For decades, the PLO and PLA would not permit their people to leave the camps set up in Jordan and Lebanon. Israel offered to let them in back in the 1960’s and 1970’s but the PLO was sure they were going to force the Jews into the Mediterranean.
So no, delacrat, there is no comparison between the Wehrmacht and the IDF. It’s interesting how all you teabagging asshhats always compare something you don’t understand, or approve of to the Nazis.
delacrat, you are a misguided and hateful human being. Plain and simple.
Israel has got mad PR skillz. The first I heard about this was that some peace loving comadoes were minding thier own business when suddenly they were beaten shitless by a mob of blood thirsty nurses and hippies.
From Juan Cole:
“The sloppy Israeli propaganda effort against the Free Gaza humanitarian flotilla has been so bad that the pictures released by the Israeli army have been tagged by alert bloggers as forgeries, some of them having been on the Web for years. This site alleges that many of the pictures put out by Israel purporting to show arms on the aid ship still contained internal tags allowing them to be identified as old photos from years ago.”
More…
“Since in the real world Israel is the Occupying power in Gaza, it is responsible under the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 for the welfare of its residents. Israel may not alter their lifeways, may not engage in collective punishment, and may not arbitrarily “put them on a diet” as a Likud spokesman observed was the real motive of the blockade when it was first tried out.
And since there is no Gazan state with which Israel can be at war, but only a squalid slum under the Israeli jackboot, it is not in fact legal for Israel to rampage about attacking civilian aid ships in international waters, summarily murdering the humanitarian workers aboard them.
After all those imbecilic World War II analogies that the Neoconservatives tried to sell us about Iraq, the idea that Netanyahu is yet again just doing his bit to defeat Adolph Hitler by shooting down humanitarian volunteers rings hollow indeed. It isn’t always 1938 or 1942, folks. Get over it.”
So much for why anybody should trust anything from the IDF. By the way, this whole article is worth a read.
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/netanyahu-defiant-still-fighting-ww-ii-hypocrisy-of-netanyahu-lieberman-opposing-terrorism.html
Jason330,
well said,
Juan Cole (?) – just one blogger’s opinion and another apologist for Hamas terrorists. And his wiki entry reads as if he wrote it himself. Blah, blah, blah.
Jason, I didn’t think you were as misguided as A1 and the revisionist delecrat. Guess I was wrong.
Sure, who are we going to believe – Juan Cole, an internationally recognized Middle East expert and author or MJ, a blame-the-victim, they got what they deserved, Israeli apologist?
Gaza 2010 = Warsaw 1940
The Economist provides an instructive overview of what goods are restricted into Gaza. And that the list is fairly ephemeral and what is on this list doesn’t have damn thing to do with armaments. It is very hard — very hard indeed — to argue that this blockade isn’t supposed to be collective punishment. A punishment that is supposed to make the people of Gaza reject Hamas in return for more creature comforts. This is a strategy that doesn’t have much political success, except for those who impose it, who get to try to convince themselves that they are imposing all of this deprivation for noble reasons. See Cuba and Castro,Fidel.
Having book sense, as Cole does with all of his degrees, doesn’t give him common sense, which he seriously lacks. He’s an apologist for Ahmedinajad, claiming that the NYT “misinterpreted” his comments about wiping Israel off of the map. Yeah, just like FAUX News, fair and balanced. He has never written one thing positive about Israel and his begs his followers on his blog for “donations” to keep it going, calling it a “tip jar.”
A1 = anti-Semite and revisionist. You are a truly sorry excuse for a human being.
MJ, calling me an “anti-semite” shows the shallowness of your arguments, and, as I mentioned perviously, it is the last resort from those who believe that Israel can do no wrong and should suffer no criticism, even as it starves the children of Gaza and murders those trying to help them.
There are many Jews and Israelis who disagree with the current Israeli policies and actions. Are they “anti-semites” too?
If you knew me, you would know how ridiculous such a charge is.
“President Barack Obama said Thursday that the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip was “tragic”, but he stopped short of condemning the actions of Israeli forces.
While Obama said the deaths of nine people were unnecessary, he said the U.S. wants to wait for “an investigation of international standards” to determine the facts. Israel, he said, should agree to such an investigation.
“They recognize that this can’t be good for Israel’s long-term security,” Obama said in an interview with CNN’s Larry King airing Thursday night.”
A bit wishy-washy, but a good start. Maybe he can use this as a real catalyst to push Israel to get serious about peace talks and the two state solution.
anonone,
An ‘investigation of international standards'” would no more deter israel than did the Goldstone Report.
a “good start” would be for the potus to announce that the US Sixth Fleet would be ensuring that humanitarian aid vessels will proceed to Gaza unmolested.
a “good start” would be for the potus to announce that the US Sixth Fleet would be ensuring that humanitarian aid vessels will proceed to Gaza unmolested.
Except that whoever breaks the blockade assumes responsibility for the consequences. (Pottery Barn Rule, C. Powell).
Juan Cole lost me when he excused Ahmadinnerjacket’s “wipe Israel off the map” as a translation error. An expert in bullshit, he is.
A1 – but ya are, Blanche, ya are!
Something to think about.
anon @ 7:48 pm:
Whoever breaks the blockade assumes responsibility for the consequences. (Pottery Barn Rule, C. Powell).
What an idiotic remark.
The blockade is a war crime, not a decorative dinner plate.
“Something to think about” is simply more Israeli propaganda to justify their continued ghettoization and killings of the Palestinians in Gaza.
In regards to Juan Cole, he simply pointed out that the media has mis-translated Ahmadinejad’s remark. Cole also says “Anyone who reads this column knows that I deeply disagree with Ahmadinejad’s policies and am not interested in defending him on most things. I profoundly disagree with his characterization of Israel, which is a legitimate United Nations member state, and find his Holocaust denial monstrous.”
http://www.juancole.com/2007/06/ahmadinejad-i-am-not-anti-semitic.html
A1 – and what you’re posting isn’t propaganda? Give me a break. Guess if anything comes out of the mouth of a Jew, it’s propaganda. And fuck Juan Cole. As stated earlier, he’s just an apologist for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Ahmedinajad.
Simply put, we can both find things to back up our claims. But when you equate Israel with Nazi Germany and the Nazi regime, sort of like Glenn Beck, you lose.
delacrat – so I guess our blockade of Cuba back in the 60’s was a war crime.
When will the IDF release the videos of their soldiers pumping rounds into the civilians on the ships that they attacked?
But I guess that it is wrong to equate Israeli’s killing of Palestinians, stealing their land, bulldozing their houses, holding them in Ghettos, denying them medical care, and starving their children with anything the Nazi’s did.
So I suppose that these Jews are anti-semites just like me:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
You are just an ignorant fucktard, A1. Face it, you have no game and are in way over your head.
You know, A1, you sound a lot like that crazy Liz Allen. Hmmmm………
Face it, MJ, your statement “they got what they deserved” and calling critics of Israel “anti-semites” is pretty much all you have to say about this incident. Since that is how you feel, maybe you should write a letter to the 19 year-old’s parents to tell them that their son got what he deserved.
I hope the name-calling helps you feel better about yourself because it does nothing to advance your argument.
A1 – FAIL once again.
Are you talking about the “peace activist” who hadn’t been in the US since he was 2, who considered himself a Turk and not an American?
Hopefully, his parents won’t let any of their other children put their lives at risk by acting as a human shield for a terrorist organization.
These comments on Israel and Palestine make my heart ache. They also demonstrate, perfectly, why there is no peace in this region.