Saturday, November 22, 2008

Help, Help, Help!!!


U.S. auto executives warned Congress on Tuesday , 18 November 2008, that their industry was teetering on the brink of disaster as they pleaded for a $25 billion aid package despite political opposition to another multibillion-dollar government bailout. This editorial cartoon, by Steve Benson of the Arizona Republic, warned the auto industry on 22 March 1981!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Truer words not spoken


Speaking about his recent participation in defying the Israeli blockade of Gaza, peace activitist and Jewish Israeli Jeff Halper said of Gaza: "It's the opposite of what the Israeli public thinks. They think that Gaza is all Hamas and they hate Israelis. But if they knew the truth, they'd have to say there is a basis for peacemaking here." Why doen't the Israeli public know the truth? because the Israeli government ensures no contact between Palestinians and Israeli citizens. It is against the law. And the Israeli government's propaganda is aimed at demonizing all Palestinians.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Couldn't say it any better....

Par for Mr. Corsi
An expert at misrepresentation takes on Barack Obama.

The Washington Post, Friday, August 15, 2008; Page A20

There's a cottage industry in books about Barack Obama; by one count, more than 20 are just out or are in the works. But few debut in the No. 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list, as Jerome R. Corsi's "The Obama Nation" will do among nonfiction hardcover titles this week. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, given his earlier hit job on the last Democratic nominee, Mr. Corsi's latest is rife with inaccuracies and innuendo. If the fundamental smear of "Unfit for Command" was that John F. Kerry was no war hero, the insinuation of Mr. Corsi's latest is that "The Obama Nation" -- the ungainly play on words (abomination, get it?) is "fully intended," the author tells us -- reprises the Corsi method. Mr. Corsi boasts that "I fully document all arguments and contentions I make, extensively footnoting all references" and asserts that "my fundamental opposition to Obama's presidential candidacy involves public policy differences." But footnoting to a discredited blog item does not constitute careful scholarship, and the bulk of Mr. Corsi's book has nothing to do with issues.

He gets facts wrong, from the date of Mr. Obama's marriage to whether he dedicated his autobiography to his family (he did) to whether he revealed that he took his future wife on his second trip to Kenya (he did.) He makes offensive statements: "The sexual attraction of his mother to her African husband jumps out from the page."

When facts are lacking, Mr. Corsi makes his point by suggestive questions. Noting that Life magazine could find no record of an article that Mr. Obama remembered reading as a child about a black man who tried to lighten his skin, Mr. Corsi asks, "How much more imagining, hypothetical lying, or just plain lying is Obama capable of doing?" When facts are present, he twists them to make Mr. Obama bad.

Mr. Corsi's discussion of Mr. Obama's drug use -- disclosed by Mr. Obama in his autobiography -- manages to combine a few of these techniques. "Still, Obama has yet to answer questions whether he ever dealt drugs, or if he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or whether his drug usage extended into his law school days or beyond. Did Obama ever use drugs in his days as a community organizer in Chicago, or when he was a state senator from Illinois? How about in the U.S. Senate?" In fact, Mr. Obama has said that he stopped using drugs when he was 20. Mr. Corsi is similarly misleading about Mr. Obama's religious background, questioning his claim to be Christian. "Obama had to know that running for political office, even state office, would be much more difficult to do if voters suspected he was a Muslim," Corsi writes. "Yet once Obama became a member of Trinity, he had proof he was a Christian, as he professed to be."

Mr. Corsi has dismissed criticisms of his book as "nit-picking," an odd defense coming from an author happy to inflate any possible omission into a full-blown evasion. Mary Matalin, the Republican political strategist who heads Threshold Editions, the Simon & Schuster division that published "The Obama Nation," described the book to the New York Times as "a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that." That would not be our description.

From The Washington Post

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Whose side are you on?

If one criticizes the Israeli government's actions, one is called an anti-Semite or if one is Jewish and does so, one is labeled a "self-hater." But let us be crystal clear. Let me quote Dr. Alice Rothchild, who in turn is quoting Jeff Halper, coordinator of the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions, "I am on the 'side' of Israelis and Palestinians who seek a just peace that addresses Palestinian rights of self-determination as well as Israeli concerns of security and regional integration. I am on the 'side' that stands for equality, human rights, democracy, peaceful co-existence and regional development." [Halper, Israeli Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, paper presented to the European paliament, Brussels, June 2001.]

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Faux Christians

Heard on a "Christian" radio station today some commentator speaking about how "Christians" must support Israel and not allow the Israeli government to make any agreements with the Palestinians. Why? Because it was the "Christians" responsibility to ensure that Israel remained a viable nation to facilitate the Second Coming. I call them faux Christians because they believe they must help God achieve the Second Coming. Since when does God need their help? Are they not taking on the role of God? No body knows when the Christ will return. "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." [Mark 13:32]

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Three things have come together which have cause me great anger. I have recently returned from Israel and the Occupied Territories, I have read Jimmy Carter's book, the title of which is the headline for this entry, and I have watched CNN's "God's Warriors." Posts from this point on will deal with that which I saw and that which I read and hear about concerning the Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians. First, I am here to tell you that every word in Carter's book is true. Not because someone told me; not because he was once the President. No. It is because what he has written about, I saw with my own eyes.

You may doubt, and you may have swallowed the Kool-Aid dispensed by AIPAC, the Christian Zionists, and even your instructor in Hebrew school, but know that the ancient Jewish tradition has that if two people report the same thing, it must be true.

As I said, I will write more at another time. My life right now is very hectic and demanding. I write when I can. If anybody cares to read, great. If anybody dares to discuss, greater still. But the posts will not be daily. Today's take-away is: Carter tells the truth; read the book!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Memorial Day 2008

I weep for the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen
Who have died in service of their country.
I weep for the lives cut short by another man’s bullet or bomb.
I weep for those who have been killed because of another man's folly.

While I weep for those who rescued the world
Those who fought in World War II and did survive to very old age,
I also celebrate their courage and sacrifice and the lives they led in the
years that followed.

I weep also because Patriotsm seems to be dying.
People no longer place their hand over their heart upon hearing the
National Anthem.
It's just a perfunctory item to get out of the way before the ball game.

I especially weep for all my fellow Navy men and women.
There are no little U.S. flags nor perfectly aligned white headstones
to mark at sea the final resting place of those who gave all
for their nation's freedom.